Coping with the pandemic: More people are seeking mental health care, while providers face capacity issues

Illustration on depression

Mental health providers are experiencing an unprecedented increase in demand for services, as we come to grips with the most recent wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the dark winter ahead.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio – For nearly 20 months, we have ridden the peaks and troughs of the coronavirus pandemic. Long stretches of isolation and loss, eventually gave way to a period of hope -- only for the Delta variant to reignite our anxieties, plunging us into yet another dark season that promises to find new ways to tax us mentally and emotionally.

All along, our collective stress has borne out in staggering statistics: From 2019 to 2020 symptoms of anxiety disorders tripled and depressive disorders quadrupled. One in 10 American adults reported an increase in substance use in 2020 because of the pandemic and the number of people reporting serious consideration of suicide has doubled since 2018.

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