Reflections of Males’s Psychological Well being & COVID-19

Written by Matt Sha on August 25, 2021

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic introduced lockdowns, bodily distancing, and public well being pointers making social connection—a vital piece of the psychological well being puzzle—more and more tough. Previous to COVID-19, and the social adjustments that got here together with it, male suicide charges have been already excessive and rising leading to a fantastic trigger for concern.

Through the UBC Lowering Male Suicide (RMS) Digital Panel, “Getting upstream to stop male suicide”, we heard from three researchers from the RMS cluster:

• Paul Hyperlinks is a professor within the Division of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster College
• Francine Darroch is an assistant professor at Carleton College and an affiliate professor at UBC within the College of Nursing
• John Ogrodniczuk is a Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the UBC Psychotherapy Program

Dr. Paul Hyperlinks mentioned his printed overview wanting on the relationship between infectious disease-related public well being emergencies, such because the 1918 Influenza pandemic, and the outcomes of suicide behaviour and suicide. He famous that there does appear to be a hyperlink between pandemics and the elevated danger of suicide-related outcomes. Moreover, Dr. Hyperlinks left us with a query given the present normalization of telehealth: “We already know that generally we have now bother working with males who’re in danger, assessing them, as a result of we all know we miss the cues of males. How can we do [virtual care] successfully?”.

Dr. Francine Darroch detailed the connection between bodily exercise and psychological well being from her analysis, which goals to “leverage bodily exercise to enhance high quality of life and supply psychosocial advantages”. Nonetheless, she mentions that the pandemic has created “unprecedented limitations to bodily exercise entry”, particularly for people residing in marginalizing circumstances who’ve skilled a “enormous lower in entry to in-person companies”. The end result has been a rise in sedentary behaviour, which in return has impacts on psychological well being.

But, there may be nonetheless hope in these tough occasions.

Dr. John Ogrodniczuk shared about his latest experiences with males reaching out to him:

“I believe one of many issues that COVID has completed is present a possibility to have conversations about psychological well being in a manner that we haven’t earlier than and that’s actually vital”

He continued by mentioning, “Individuals are getting the message, guys particularly, with my personal observe plenty of guys are reaching out with easy messages: ‘I believe it’s time for me to speak to someone, I don’t know the place to go, are you able to assist?’”. Though many people felt remoted and disconnected through the pandemic, these uncommon occasions sparked a dialog between guys about their psychological well being and reaching out for skilled assist.

Moreover, Dr. Ogrodniczuk provides, “It’s a tough factor for guys, however I believe with the entire conversations which might be occurring now due to COVID, it has opened up the door a little bit bit extra for them”.

Hear the complete dialog with Dr. Hyperlinks, Dr. Darroch, & Dr. Ogrodniczuk