COVID had a large impact on York County’s mental health. We don’t have all the answers
In addition to the every day stressors people face -- providing for their family and the pressure to succeed -- there was the pandemic, said Dr. Brian Mika, a psychiatrist at Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill.
He said the pandemic, especially early on, limited people’s ability to interact, visit family and even seek medical care — all of which can negatively impact someone’s mental health.
“There’s a lot of primary care doctors who might be one of the people ... you might turn to, are canceling all their routine physicals and annual physicals in order to create (time for) more sick visits,” Mika said.
On the other hand, Mika said there are elements of the pandemic that actually made therapy more accessible.
“People can get a 50-minute visit with their therapist scheduled around a lunch break or they can go in their car, turn on their phone and have a visit as opposed to taking half a day to drive across town, park, sit in a waiting room, spend an hour and then drive back,” he said.
The pandemic has also relieved some stressors, Mika said.
“We’ve certainly seen situations where people had to reassess where their life was headed,” Mika said. “Someone who was working 14, 15, 16 hours a day just to stay afloat, might be changing careers. People are downsizing, realizing, ‘Hey, I don’t need to have that car or that house.’ It’s helped a few people take away some stressors.”
Beyond the pandemic
For anyone weary of the COVID pandemic, Rachel Shomate’s assessment on mental health may be tough to hear.
“I don’t think you’ve seen the effects or the results of the pandemic at this point,” said Shomate, the lead mental health counselor for the Fort Mill School District.
People are still floating in crisis mode, she said.
Until the pandemic ends it won’t be clear how it changed a current kindergartner or second-grader who hasn’t yet had a typical school year. A kid about to go to high school without one typical year of middle school. Infants who couldn’t see word formation from mouths behind masks, or young children who simply haven’t been around other people.
“Those social effects are going to come out in five or 10 years when they’re in school,” Shomate said. “The elementary age kids, those are going to come out eventually because they have gaps as well. Middle and high, you have the same thing.”
When the pandemic hit, there was immediate concern about seniors who would miss prom and graduation. The list, like the pandemic, has grown longer.
“Kids are missing milestones, birthdays, proms,” Shomate said. “These are big things that generally we all have memories of. They can’t go back. They’re not going to get them back, and we’re not done. We’re two years into this, and we’re not done.”
Even the more routine school experiences have been in a constant flux.
“I do empathize for those who haven’t had the opportunity to experience school in the way that most people have experienced it,” Jones said. “In losing opportunities to go to prom and things like that, having a regularly scheduled basketball game and knowing that basketball game is going to occur.”
Experts also point to the rise in mental health service needs prior to the pandemic.
“They certainly are still there, and they’re just as important as before, but the emphasis has certainly been on, ‘are you depressed?’” said Tamara Edrington, director of Catawba Mental Health Center. “Are you anxious? Because of everything that’s going on in our world.”
Concerns like social injustice still strain mental health -- post COVID, she said.
“We don’t hear about the common cold anymore,” Edrington said. “Every cough, every sneeze it is, did you take the COVID test? But colds still exist. Just like other underlying mental health issues still exist.”
Some things improved
There have been some positives.
Schools and pediatricians now conduct more standard assessments that identify depression or anxiety earlier. The pandemic raised mental health awareness and poured federal funds into areas it hadn’t before, Edrington said. Pandemic brought the rise of telehealth services.
“That came about because we were on our stay at home orders,” Edrington said.
Missed or canceled appointments are down. Car trouble won’t mean canceling an appointment. For Courtney Jones, a school social worker with the Clover School District, the pandemic also poured light on the disparity of resources from economic to geographic, to internet access and transportation.
“It kind of opened our eyes to those who were already vulnerable,” Jones said. “They became more vulnerable in that time.”
Burnout rates and anxiety will outlast the pandemic, experts say. The question is, will increased mental health awareness be sustained?
“I certainly hope so because there will be long-term symptoms once the pandemic is over,” Edrington said.
Dealing with social media
Shomate calls social media a huge concern for mental health. There’s no rolling back phone or social media availability, she said.
“Everything is right there at the moment,” Shomate said. “So anything that occurs, the events that are going on on a weekend, everybody’s seeing that because these kids are instantaneously getting the gratification of posting. And they have to post, and they have to have the TikToks and the Snaps.”
The problem, she said, is many posted images are only surface deep.
“We all put our best selves out there,” Shomate said. “When your kid’s throwing stuff in the car, that’s not on social media. It’s 10 minutes later when you get to the park and we’re all a happy family.”
So what can parents do?
“First and foremost, I would monitor social media for our children,” Edrington said. “That is on the rise here lately, the use of different social media platforms.”
Jones said social media is a blessing and a curse. When COVID hit, some platforms were vital ways to keep students connected. Yet there can be too much connection.
Talking about the pre-social media era, Jones said: “Kids were able to separate from whatever issues they had at school. It was at school. When I first started, social media was in its infancy so to speak. Once you left school there was a level of protection. You had a barrier.”
Now anything can blast online at any time.
Many parents aren’t aware of the strife created by online peer conflicts, Jones said. Students can easily find images or videos of people who seem to have more, or seem more together. Part of the issue is electronic, part of it the society created for young people.
“We continuously compare everything, across the board,” Shomate said. “Your job, your finances, what car you drive, everything. I don’t know how to change that. I don’t know how to shift that societally. But that’s what needs to shift.”
Society, comparison and pressure
Many pressures on young people stem from a world that has dramatically changed in recent years, or world views that haven’t. Some expectations on children may seem exaggerated compared to past generations.
“The pressure we put on kids today is huge,” Shomate said. “The push to succeed in athletics, in academics, in all areas. We do put a lot more pressure on kids than I remember growing up.”
Adults are in constant comparison mode, which makes its way to children, she said.
“The level of achievement just continues to rise,” Shomate said. “These kids are taking tests at younger ages. Preparing for what’s supposed to be the rest of their lives? Come on. What happened to going out and hitting the baseball and enjoying that time? It’s over.”
On another end of the expectation spectrum are many young people raised by older adults, often grandparents.
“Older generations, unfortunately, the 60-plus generation, that’s how most of them were raised,” Edrington said. “Suck it up, move on, you’ll be OK. That is a barrier that they’re learning that doesn’t work for this generation.”
Sucking it up and moving on doesn’t resolve mental health issues, she said. It often delays a conflict.
While older adults can be invaluable resources to young people, it can be difficult for grandparents to relate to social media and other more modern pressures. Communication can be a challenge across generations.
“The generation of a grandparent is not the same generation we’re in right now,” Edrington said.
