Patterns of Mental Health Hotline Calls during and before Pandemic

Abstract

The article compares calls to a mental health hotline from March 1 to April 17, 2020, with the same period in 2019. Calls related to stress, anxiety, suicide, and abuse are considered. In 2020, compared with the same period in 2019, the following dynamics are noted: the number of calls concerning anxious conditions increased 2.5 times; calls about suicidal acts appeared, the number of calls about self-harming behavior increased 2.5 times; the number of complaints on the topics of domestic, physical and sexual abuse increased almost 1.5 times. It is assumed that the results can be extrapolated and thus they reflect the current psychological difficulties of people as a whole.

Keywords

• pandemic
• covid-19
• coronavirus
• mental health hotline