The “COVID-19: Updates from Singapore” weekly webinar series is a forum for leading clinicians, scientists, public health officials and policy makers to share insights from their fields of study. The fourteenth edition of the webinar was held on Thursday, 9 July.
Dr Cornelia Chee, Head and Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine as well as Head and Senior Consultant in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the National University Hospital, was the guest speaker for this week’s webinar session. Dr Cornelia Chee brings with her 20 years of practicing psychiatry experience, where her expertise was especially crucial during the 2003 SARS and MERS outbreaks.
TitledMental Health Strategies to Combat COVID-19, Dr Chee began the session by highlighting that, despite the collective wealth of knowledge accumulated and discovered by mental health experts, managing and coping with mental health effects developed during COVID-19 outbreak continues to be an uphill battle. Dr Chee gave insights into four areas: the direct effects of COVID-19, our population response to disasters, what we can do as a population and personal mental health strategies. Dr Chee acknowledged that there is fear for personal and general safety which stems from the unknown aspects of the virus and its virulent spread. There were mental health effects caused by the imposed Circuit Breaker measures in Singapore where boundaries between work and personal life blurred. For others, there were also the financial and economic implications that come with losing livelihoods.
There were obvious neurological features present in COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms. For those with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a large proportion of them experienced agitation and confusion during their stay. From all those who were discharged, a third of them are still affected. In terms of direct involvement in the brain, Dr Chee said it has been proven that there is definite neuronal damage in severe and post-mortem COVID-19 cases. Therefore, there is a strong need to identify and provide early care interventions to known COVID-19 survivors around the world and over long term, especially those who had ARDS or were in the ICU. These patients may have a slightly higher chance of developing schizophrenia at a later stage so increased regular surveillance is required to prevent the likelihood of it happening.
Dr Chee recommended that special populations such as healthcare workers, migrant workers and vulnerable persons, like those with special needs, require support as they often fall by the wayside. Describing COVID-19 as a prolonged disaster with a long mental health tail, some mental health strategies to cope with the stress include the provision of national care hotlines for those who need emotional support. For personal mental health strategies, Dr Chee advised that it would be useful for people to aim to get the right amount of information, exercise mindfulness and focus on the present, finding new ways to socially connect and focus on what keeps you intrinsically motivated.
WATCH: COVID-19 Updates from Singapore: Webinar 14 | Dr Cornelia Chee
Tune in to next week’s “COVID-19: Updates from Singapore” session on 16 July 2020 where guest speaker Professor David Paterson, Director at The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research and an Infectious Diseases Physician at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, will speak on “Treating COVID-19: Reckless cowboys vs the ivory tower academics”.
