On March 14, 2020, the Spanish Government declared a State of Alarm throughout the state territory to confront the expansion of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. That same day, our lives changed with just a few words, and the pace of life, as we knew it, came to a standstill.
Never before had our society and public institutions faced such an uncertain challenge when making decisions. The first action, and where we all joined forces, was aimed at saving lives, as many lives as possible. That is why all efforts were focused on healthcare; and the staff of the Canary Islands Health Service in hospitals and health centers were performing at 200% despite the fear, the lack of knowledge, and, at times, the limited protection of the staff. Those first weeks, as an emergency nurse at the Dr. José Molina Orosa Hospital in Lanzarote, I remember that in each shift I thought about caring for and helping those sick patients, saving lives from a physiological and organic point of view, ultimately, helping them continue breathing.
However, another parallel reality was unfolding around us. While healthcare workers, police officers, supermarket cashiers, transporters, etc. continued fighting the virus in those early moments of the pandemic, receiving our respective paychecks month after month, thousands of workers confined to their homes received notifications about their ERTE (Temporary Redundancy Plan) status, unemployment, and even terminations of many self-employed individuals that were becoming effective due to the little or no existing economic activity. We realized that in COVID-19 we not only had to focus on the issue of saving lives, but also on achieving a balance to save the economy and, with it, the well-being of the neediest families.
The COVID-19 pandemic has generated symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia among healthcare personnel, with higher levels among women and older professionals. Variables such as having been in contact with the virus or fear at work triggered greater symptomatology according to many studies. From my experience, I can say the following: I have been an emergency nurse for more than 15 years and have experienced numerous traumatic situations; but until the time of the pandemic, of all these months that we have lived in tension, my emotional state had never been so affected. Currently, I suffer from insomnia, nightmares, startles, and bouts of depression, very common also among my colleagues. The psychological effects of the pandemic are clearly reflected among those of us who have been dealing with it.
I don't want to imagine how the families that have been directly affected by COVID-19 may feel psychologically and emotionally, especially those who have lost loved ones from whom they have not been able to say goodbye under normal conditions, nor those who, after so much time of uncertainty, remain connected to a ventilator. Nor can we forget the psychological suffering of families whose socio-economic crisis, so devastating that this virus and its restrictions have caused, has diminished their state of well-being, even having to request help from food banks to survive. Numerous Canarian families are in a borderline emotional and depressive state, often as a result of the job uncertainty they are suffering.
Institutions, the administration, and society in general, must be aware that there is an emotional and psychological damage which can be as destructive as the viral damage produced in an organism by COVID-19. In addition to saving lives, we must save the mental health of our people, what I call the silent pandemic.
Mental health is, in general terms, the state of balance between a person and their socio-cultural environment that guarantees their labor and intellectual participation, the relationships to achieve well-being and quality of life. Seeing it this way, we realize that in the situation in which we live, it is very possible that many people will not achieve full mental health. The current situation implies greater uncertainty, more probabilities of suffering some mental disorder such as depression or anxiety, and, in people with suicidal thoughts, a greater risk of carrying it out (90% of deaths by suicide are linked to a mental condition). The Public Administrations of all the Canary Islands must row in the same direction to, at least, reduce the cases. To cushion this impact, experts describe it as really important that actions are put in place in populations that have special vulnerability, such as frontline workers, relatives of loved ones lost by COVID-19, people who have lost their job status, etc.
It is very important to promote strategies by public health institutions that point out good psychological practices, with preventive evidence, with easy accessibility, that priorities can be established and awareness raised among the sectors most likely to suffer from some of the most frequent mental pathologies among the population.
It is time to save lives, but also to save the mental health of Canarian men and women.
Yoné Caraballo is an Emergency Nurse at the Dr. Molina Orosa Hospital in Lanzarote. Currently, he serves as the Insular Secretary of Welfare of Nueva Canarias.
