Prescribe behavioral health resources when diagnosed with covid

Quarantining is lonely.

When covid hits home, you’re told to quarantine. Anyone with a positive case should isolate from those without covid. The science of this guideline makes sense; reduce the risk of spreading the virus.

Yet, we’re human and we’re hardwired to need love.

It’s hard to feel love during quarantine, especially when it’s a mild case of covid or you are positive without symptoms.

My husband tested positive and then my son tested positive. Both were fully vaccinated with symptoms. I tested negative and never had symptoms.

We lived in the same house but spent 90% of our 10 days of quarantine in separate rooms. Unfortunately for us, covid hit our house over holiday break, making our quarantine time feel even lonelier. Plans were cancelled and extended family members weren’t able to visit.

Our experience is not unique.

We received instructions on what to do for our physical health. But we didn’t get any information on what to do for our emotional and mental health.

This has to change if we’re going to continue recommending quarantining for the covid virus.

We can’t expect humans to isolate without support, or with the expectation that people will reach out during their quarantining and say they’re struggling.

It’s time the guidelines for returning to health include emotional and mental health.

We’ve been hearing about the negative psychological effects of quarantining for nearly two years now.

Yet, my experience is the same as someone who was quarantining in 2020.

This means we’re doing the research on emotional and behavioral health but we’re not doing anything about it. Nothing has changed.

Isolation leaves people feeling out of control and cut off from the rest of the world.

What can be done?

Companies invest in emotional and behavioral health resources.

My husband received a call from his company’s health nurse when he tested positive. His badge was deactivated and told he couldn’t return to work until his quarantine time was over. Plus, he would need a follow-up visit with the nurse to review his health.

Her next course of action should have been: “Here are the emotional and behavioral health resources you have access to as you recover.”

Companies are involved in the guidelines for returning to work after someone has covid. So it makes sense that they can be in the first line of support for emotional and mental health.

Assess the emotional and behavioral health of your coworker and their family as part of your return-to-work process.

The companies that include more talk about the emotional aspects of quarantine will develop better employee health than those that do not.

Local health departments assess emotional and mental health status of everyone in the household.

The process of quarantining and the experience of being cut-off from others may contribute to both short-term and long-term mental health issues.

We need to be responsive to these types of stressors when using quarantine and isolation measures to fight this pandemic.

What if as part of the health department’s screening process they screened for depression and anxiety symptoms? The Patient Health Questionnaires offer a good starting point for initial assessments that can be done over the phone in just a few minutes.

Use free programs and resources.

There are free programs available to help people struggling with depression, loneliness, anxiety, and to help parents whose children live with anxiety.

Download directories of outstanding resources from around the web, compiled by the NAMI Helpline and NAMI Information, Support and Education:

https://www.nami.org/Support-Education/NAMI-HelpLine/NAMI-Resource-Library

Reach out to those in quarantine.

If you know someone is in quarantine, reach out. Spend a few minutes checking in and providing love and support.

Use video chatting more often with those in quarantine. You’re able to get a better view into someone’s emotions, especially fear and sadness emotions, by looking at their eyes and facial expressions.

Ideas for staying connected to those in quarantine:

• Play card games or word games over video
• Read short stories, poems, or articles and discuss together
• Send each other a list of fun questions to answer.

Supporting mental health during quarantine is important since research shows that isolation can affect health, both in the short-term and even once quarantine is over.

Let’s figure this out together.