The Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre (ADPHC) organised a special panel discussion for COVID-19 patients and their families on the occasion of World Mental Health Day 2021. The special session was organised with the aim of destigmatising the disease for people experiencing emotional burden of COVID-19.

According to panelists, a large number of COVID-19 survivors have experienced adverse impact of the disease on their mental health. Furthermore, people who were isolating during the infection period are in need for more emotional support.

Dr Iffat El Barazi, assistant professor in health promotion at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), explained that a study was conducted in which 28 people who recovered from COVID-19 were interviewed. According to the findings of the study, COVID-19 created both positive and negative effects on people across the world. Some of the negative impacts include feelings of isolation, loneliness, stigma and anxiety along with guilt of contracting the disease.

"While the anxiety about short- and long-term effects of the disease has been widely reported, there is less understanding and support for patients who are infected,” Dr El Barazi added.

She stated that there has been some improvement over time, but there is still a need for further support and normalisation of the condition.

The eight-month qualitative study was conducted by the UAEU in 2020 to focus on the physical and mental wellbeing of COVID-19 patients.

While discussing the findings of the study during the session, Dr El Barazi explained that a large number of participants reported fever, pain and loss of taste and smell as regular physical symptoms of the condition. They also reported symptoms like hair loss and menstrual changes that left them anxious about long-term impact of the disease on their health.

Positive takeaways

A number of patients in Abu Dhabi have expressed happiness with the physical and medical support they received from the UAE government during the period of illness.

"One respondent even expressed gratitude for having been infected in the UAE, with all the support she received and the health authorities being a call away. Others said they were able to connect with loved ones as they isolated, were able to spend time on self-reflection, and even came out of the infection with renewed appreciation for a healthy lifestyle,” the researcher underlined.

In this regard, she underlined that COVID-19 has posed unprecedented mental health burden on people. Respondents of the study have reported dealing with feelings of anger, sadness, guilt, shame, depression and anxiety.

"Some people said their neighbours stopped talking to them, especially in the initial stages of the pandemic. So, there is still a requirement for social and psychological support during the infection period and time of subsequent recovery,” Dr El Barazi noted.

She further called for de-stigmatisation of mental health disease. She stressed the need for decreasing the feelings of shame and stigma among people.

"In another UAEU study, Emiratis who used social media to find out information about COVID-19 experienced significantly poorer wellbeing. So, there is a definite need to use reliable sources of information on order to counter anxiety regarding the disease,” Dr El Barazi said.

A number of public health officials on the panel stated that the forum helped them in hearing the experiences of people recovered from COVID-19.

“We had people we looked up to talking about their experience with COVID-19. Using them to ‘champion’ the experience was uplifting,” said Dr Sara El Khadra, community health specialist at the ADPHC, public health wing of Abu Dhabi healthcare sector regulator, the Department of Health (DoH).

The UAE also used a championing strategy in 2020 to interact with COVID-19 survivors with the aim of uplifting the rest of the community.

In conclusion, panelists urged people to ensure more efforts to receive verified information about developments and precautions during the health crisis. Dr Cairo Ali Arafat, senior advisor at the Early Childhood Authority, explained that recent ADPHC campaigns have been beneficial in decreasing anxiety among people by creating awareness about the ongoing situation in the country.