Pandemic-Exacerbated or Created Problems Overwhelming Russian Psychological Services

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 6 – The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating or creating psychological problems among Russians, prompting ever more of them to turn to the country’s limited psychological services and overwhelming the capacity of those services to treat them, medical experts say.

            In certain regions, SeverReal journalist Anna Yarovaya says, the demand is so much greater than the supply that lines have formed and some Russians are concluding that there is no hope for treatment and choosing instead the traditional self-medication of alcohol, a choice that does nothing to solve the problems but only makes them worse (severreal.org/a/30980151.html).

            Viktor Lebedev, a psychiatrist in Karelia, says that since the start of the pandemic, the number of people seeking psychological and psychiatric help has skyrocketed. Doctors have been forced to adopt new methods, including online distance consultations to try to help those in need.

            At the start of the pandemic, most applicants expressed fear about the illness and their own health. Now, he says, they are reporting the symptoms of depression, family violence and obsessive-compulsive disorders brought on by the requirement to wash hands or maintain social distance.

            Some of these problems, Lebvedev says, are new; but many are simply exacerbated versions of difficulties Russians faced earlier. But the isolation required to fight the pandemic is itself harming many people because it deprives them of the communion they need to function normally.

            Government clinics are now overwhelmed with reports that the number visiting them has more than trebled. Some who can afford it are going to private for-pay clinics; but even those face difficulties in meeting the demand.  But many who need help are simply giving up, leading to more problems.

            Everyone must understand, the psychiatrist says, that “we are in the midst of a social crisis: people are losing work, they are losing those close to them, they are in a situation where they do not understand what is taking place. And the task of the government if it is socially responsible is to take responsibility for its citizens.”

            Officials can talk about how important this is, Lebedev continues; “but if they don’t support it financially, that means it isn’t important for the government. Money goes to defense because it is important and it goes to Covid hospitals. But it isn’t going to support the psychological health of citizens, and that means that for the powers, this isn’t important.”