Mitigating COVID-19 impact on the Portuguese population mental health: the opportunity that lies in digital mental health

Cristina Mendes-Santos, Gerhard Andersson, Elisabete Weiderpass, Rui Santana

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)
75 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

COVID-19 mitigation measures present unprecedented challenges in mental healthcare delivery, posing high risk to the mental health of at-risk populations, namely patients diagnosed with COVID-19, frontline healthcare providers, and those submitted to quarantine or isolation measures, as well as the general population. Ensuring safe and equitable access to mental healthcare by these groups entails resorting to innovative psychosocial intervention strategies, such as digital mental health. In this perspective piece, we describe the impact of COVID-19 on the Portuguese population's mental health, present an overview on initiatives developed to address the challenges currently faced by the Portuguese mental healthcare system, and discuss how the timely implementation of a comprehensive digital mental health strategy, coupling research, education, implementation, and quality assessment initiatives, might buffer COVID-19's impact on the Portuguese society.

Original languageEnglish
Article number553345
JournalFrontiers in public health
Volume8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Nov 2020

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • digital mental health
  • eHealth and eMental-health
  • EU
  • internet interventions
  • Portugal
  • public mental health

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