Politicians are under constant scrutiny to better represent their constituency. In the United States alone, these constituencies vary in demographics and classifications from people of color to white people, rural to urban, religious to atheist, and a myriad of other defining terms. The past two years, however, have introduced a new equalizing factor in the form of COVID-19.  

No issue has prevailed behind the scenes during the COVID-19 pandemic as much as mental health. The pandemic has forced the world to crave normalcy, a word so foreign to our mental dictionary as we enter nearly two years of constant chaos. An elementary school student wishing to have in-person classes and a grandparent experiencing their holiday seasons without any family are all a few of the pandemic’s consequences that cannot be recorded in dashboards and news articles.

The 2020 Olympics has resulted in even more limelight about the challenges of mental health on an international scale. During Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open in the lead-up to Tokyo, mental health was brought to the center court of sporting culture. When fellow Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles and Adam Peaty also spoke about their mental health challenges, the conversation was further cemented. This coupled with other stars, like English cricketer Ben Stokes who is taking an indefinite break from the sport for his mental health, who all are top representatives of their nations, has resulted in support coming in all forms and from all places.

The pandemic has inadvertently brought awareness to the need for better mental health resources and accessibility across the world. To say that the current global infrastructure in this field is lackluster is an understatement.

In India, a 2015-16 survey conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences determined that “more than 100 million Indians, or more than 13% of the Indian population, suffer from some sort of mental illness, with approximately 10% of Indians requiring immediate treatment.” Although politicians have sought progress by incorporating mental health in the country’s medical insurance system through the recent Mental Healthcare Act of 2017, recent updates have shown that this regulation has fallen on deaf ears. In June 2020, the Supreme Court of India issued a notice to the nation’s highest insurance regulatory body “seeking an explanation for the failure of insurance companies in India to provide coverage to mental healthcare.” As the pandemic rages on, the mental health inadequacy in the second-most populated country in the world has led to a great desire for more.

European countries like France and the United Kingdom have tackled the erratic nature of the pandemic through periods of lockdown and curfews. Studies such as “A longitudinal study of mental health before and after the COVID-19 lockdown in the French population” have indicated that anxiety symptoms “markedly increased from 17.3 to 20.1%” and significantly impacted women, the elderly, and the youngest demographics in France. Lime Group, a health insurance company in the U.K., determined from a survey that four in 10 employees feel less resilient emotionally two years into the pandemic. COVID-19 is certainly the great equalizer; it has exacerbated the mental health of almost every demographic possible. 

The United States has also experienced the mental difficulties of COVID-19, documented through national bodies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “From August 2020 to February 2021, the CDC described an increase in the proportion of adults reporting recent symptoms of anxiety or depression from 36.4% to 41.5%, with the fraction reporting unmet mental health care needs increasing from 9.2% to 11.7%.” In a two-year span, children and teenagers have seen monumental increases in mental health emergency department visits. The need for competent and comprehensive mental health legislation has become prioritized by interest groups, even though it may come at the behest of conventional health policy.

To combat these issues, nations have found innovative ways to mitigate pains. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, addressed the concerns of children and teenagers’ mental health needs through providing ten free counseling sessions for the duration of the pandemic. In the United States, the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Act has passed the Senate to provide grants and other resources to better assess the mental health of medical professionals and prevent suicide, burnout, depression, and other conditions.

Yet COVID-19 has become its own category of concern in contemporary healthcare. Whether it be because of students or Olympians, mental health has emerged as one of the most talked about issues during the past two years. And although strides are being made to address the ongoing discussions, the aftermath of this pandemic must acknowledge all the effects of the ongoing pandemic, including but not limited to mental health.