As Europe Moves to Improve Mental Health Services for Children, Experts Are Concerned About Men’s Mental State
Mental Health 21/03/2022 •
Dr Hans Kluge

Mental health practitioners worldwide are warning of a massive wave of pandemic-related mental health issues that many countries are ill-equipped to address.

On Monday, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Europe office and the government of Greece launched a new European programme to strengthen and improve the quality of mental health services for children and adolescents.

WHO Europe Director Dr Hans Kluge told the launch that suicide was the leading cause of death in children and adolescents aged 10 to 19 living in low- and middle-income countries in the region and that over 4000 young people in this age group had killed themselves in 2015.

 

“Ensuring that all children and adolescents in the region have access to quality mental health services is a moral imperative,” said Kluge, adding that this was as important as childhood vaccinations.

The WHO Europe programme aims to work with member states to encourage them to share knowledge and expertise about how to boost the mental healthcare of children and adolescents, and to support member countries to develop their own strategies and frameworks. It will also “develop a package of tools to measure progress against evidence-based standards”, according to the regional office.

Mental health woes of COVID-19

COVID-19 has exacerbated mental health issues and, during the first year of the pandemic, there was a 25% increase in the global prevalence of anxiety and depression, according to a WHO brief published in early March.

Approximately 140,000 children in the US have lost a parent or guardian to COVID, for example, and are likely to be struggling to come to terms with this loss.

“One major explanation for the increase is the unprecedented stress caused by the social isolation resulting from the pandemic. Linked to this were constraints on people’s ability to work, seek support from loved ones and engage in their communities,” according to the WHO.

“Loneliness, fear of infection, suffering and death for oneself and for loved ones, grief after bereavement and financial worries have also all been cited as stressors leading to anxiety and depression. Among health workers, exhaustion has been a major trigger for suicidal thinking,” it added.

Calls to South Africa’s only mental health helpline, for example, have jumped exponentially during the pandemic – from around 400 to 600 calls a day before COVID-19 to over 2400 calls a day in 2021.

Psychologist Zamo Mbele, a board member of the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) that operates the helpline, said that his non-governmental organisation, which is wholly reliant on donations, had been struggling to keep up with demand.

Psychologist Zamo Mbele, a board member of the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG)

Male violence and mental health

“One of the reasons we’ve seen an increase in our calls is because of COVID, but one of the other reasons is because people who would not previously access health are beginning to recognise that they need help,” said Mbele.

He added that “toxic” manifestations of masculinity – seen in the country’s high levels of domestic violence, road rage and substance abuse – were indications that men, in particular, needed help.

“It’s not as though men only recently starting to struggle with mental difficulties or emotional difficulties,” he added. “But they are just starting to see that the expression of their difficulties is no longer functional to them or to society. It’s no longer as socially acceptable to be violent in order to deal with your depression, or to have a big temper in order to deal irritability or anxiety – or to drink excessively or to spend copious amounts of hours at the gym.

“Instead, we’re beginning to recognise that actually doing a lot of these things is masking a lot of symptoms.”

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Men and suicide

In the vast majority of countries, men are far more likely to commit suicide than women, which mental health practitioners say is likely to be because men find it harder to ask for help.

This is a worldwide trend, captured by the WHO’s Suicide Worldwide in 2019: Global Health Estimates. The report found that South Africa has the third-highest suicide rate on the African continent. Of the 13,774 suicides reported in South Africa, 10,681 were men in 2913 were women.

Russia, South Korea, the US and Japan also have high suicide rates, particularly amongst men.

However, while there has been an increase in suicidal thoughts during the pandemic, there has not been a global increase in actual suicides – with notable exceptions, such as Austria, and Japan (although there is very little information from LMICs).

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