How the pandemic changed health care, one year later

How the pandemic changed health care, one year later

Posted on March 10, 2021

The pandemic exacerbated mental health and substance use challenges for many people. Dawn Brown, NAMI director of HelpLine Services, said the amount of calls over the last year ebbed and flowed, but that at the height of the pandemic, calls shot up as much as 75 percent. Calls about anxiety and depression replaced schizophrenia and bipolar disorder as the hotline’s top illnesses. The expansion of telehealth made it easier for some people to keep up with mental health care. Still, patients with severe mental illness often rely on community support services that weren’t always available. Lawmakers could weigh in on these challenges later this year. Sen. Tim Kaine told reporters last week that expanding the mental health care workforce would be an important focus for the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “We were short on that before COVID. We’re really going to be short now,” the Virginia Democrat said.