TY - JOUR
T1 - Mitigating COVID-19 impact on the Portuguese population mental health
T2 - the opportunity that lies in digital mental health
AU - Mendes-Santos, Cristina
AU - Andersson, Gerhard
AU - Weiderpass, Elisabete
AU - Santana, Rui
PY - 2020/11/16
Y1 - 2020/11/16
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - COVID-19
KW - digital mental health
KW - eHealth and eMental-health
KW - EU
KW - internet interventions
KW - Portugal
KW - public mental health
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096968975&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpubh.2020.553345
DO - 10.3389/fpubh.2020.553345
M3 - Article
C2 - 33313033
AN - SCOPUS:85096968975
SN - 2296-2565
VL - 8
JO - Frontiers in public health
JF - Frontiers in public health
M1 - 553345
ER -