As California slowly recovers from the pandemic, many people remain happy and healthy, but perhaps even more people are suffering from serious mental illnesses.
To help encourage mental fitness, Day One Pasadena, in collaboration with Los Angeles County Mental Health Promoters, is hosting free, confidential, and educational workshops with English and Spanish versions on Thursday, Feb. 4 and Feb. 11 in which attendees will learn about self-care techniques to promote mental well-being.
A Mental Health America report for 2021 includes a spotlight on the impact COVID-19 has had on mental health, using the more than 1.5 million people who participated in an MHA Screening from January to September 2020.
The screening found that the number of people looking for help with anxiety and depression had skyrocketed. From January to September, 315,220 people took the anxiety screen, a 93% increase over 2019, and 534,784 people took the depression screen, a 62%increase over 2019 totals.
The number of people screened with moderate to severe symptoms of depression and anxiety continued to increase throughout 2020 and remained higher than rates prior to COVID-19. In September, the rate of moderate to severe anxiety peaked, with eight of 10 people who took an anxiety screen scoring with moderate to severe symptoms. Over eight in 10 people who took a depression screen scored with symptoms of moderate to severe depression consistently since the beginning of the pandemic in March.
More people are also reporting frequent thoughts of suicide and self-harm than have ever been recorded in the MHA screening program since its launch in 2014. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread rapidly in March, more than 178,000 people reported frequent suicidal ideation. By September, 37 percent of people screened reported having thoughts of suicide nearly every day.
The report also showed young people are struggling most with their mental health. The proportion of youth ages 11 to 17 who accessed screening was 9% higher than the average in 2019.
Thursday’s webinar by Los Angeles County Mental Health Promoters and Day One Pasadena begins at 5 p.m. via Zoom.
To access the event, visit bit.ly/laselfcare.
