"How has COVID-19 impacted behavioral health needs?"
This was the question discussed during the Directorate of Behavioral Health's Mental Health Panel session on May 26 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) in Bethesda, Maryland.
Panel members included health-care providers, spiritual leaders and support services personnel from throughout the WRNMMC community. All agreed that the year and a half people have faced the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging on multiple fronts, affecting the mental health of many individuals.
"The Mental Health Awareness Panel affords beneficiaries and clinicians the opportunities to generate discussions on how Behavioral Health [services] have addressed the increase in mental health concerns across Tricare beneficiaries during the pandemic," Army Maj. Darlene Lazard explained. Lazard, deputy director for Behavioral Health at WRNMMC, coordinated the event.
"Unfortunately, we have had an increase in sexual assault reporting, and an increase in sexual harassment concerns [since the pandemic began]," said Evarlean Rumph, command sexual assault response coordinator at WRNMMC. Behavioral health providers state extreme stress, uncertainties because of job loss, reduced working hours and other concerns, fear, quarantine, social isolations and movement restrictions, all have raised concern for increases in assault and abuse.
"Mental health services are always offered during our intake briefing to all of our clients. [Many] feel mental health services add a positive impact on their healing process," Rumph said.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Michael Polito, a child and adolescent psychologist at WRNMMC, said similar to other services at the medical center, his department has seen "a trend in flux of needs" among beneficiaries. "We usually see a lot of acute cases within our service, but there's been much more of a stress on families as they hunkered down together and tried to navigate the world of virtual learning.
He also noted virtual learning came with stressors because schools weren't prepared for it and there were hiccups. Families had to deal with time management issues, and in some cases, kids' grades dropped because of the change from in-person learning.
"A lot of the services we focused on was providing problem-solving solutions," Polito continued. "We sort of shifted our treatment modalities to what's the problem and how we solve it, versus [previously] focusing more on pathology."