SOCIAL FACTORS MATTER TOO Research also points to a strong link between mental health conditions and experience of childhood adversity, family violence, loneliness, racism, homophobia, and transphobia. Workplace stressors, financial stress, unemployment, and homelessness are also risk factors. Many of these issues are on the increase because of COVID-19, so to safeguard mental health we need to tackle them and their impact. This will require the use of evidence-based preventive programs outlined above— many of which already exist but are not being implemented well or to sufficient scale. It will also require public policies to soften the economic blow and ease financial stress. Targeting these issues will not only help to prevent mental health conditions, but physical health conditions as well. Read more: Feeling hopeless? There are things you can do to create and maintain hope in a post-coronavirus world While better access to mental health-care services is important, it can’t solve all the mental health challenges posed by COVID-19. We also need to strengthen the factors that buffer people against stress, and tackle the underlying factors that contribute to poor mental health. Whether we create a National Preventive Mental Health Plan or embed mental health in the current National Preventive Health Strategy, one thing’s for sure—continuing to ignore the prevention of mental health conditions is not an option in a COVID-19 world.
Local communities could also be mobilised to take positive action on local issues that contribute to poor health and mental health through place-based strategies. Place-based strategies aim to tackle issues existing at a neighbourhood level, such as social isolation and poor housing. Read more: Melbourne’s second lockdown will take a toll on mental health. We need to look out for the vulnerable. Services could be reoriented towards prevention. Primary care professionals might provide advice on self-care and use social prescribing to address stress and enhance social supports. Social prescribing involves medical professionals linking patients to non-medical supports. For example, they may provide an “exercise prescription” or “art prescription”. Finally, appropriate public policy solutions, such as JobSeeker and JobKeeper, that tackle the social and economic determinants of ill-health are needed.
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