Letter to editor: Re: "Primary care physician's approach for mental health impact of COVID-19": Case of migrant workers mental health.

Abstract

Dear Editor, We read the article by Rohilla[1] with great interest where the authors have described that how our primary care physician colleagues can share the responsibility and can manage the psychological burden of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the many special groups identified by authors,[1] we would like to highlight the psychological issues related to needs of a very important subgroup, that is, “Migrant workers.”[23] The migrant population is already very vulnerable and in addition to the recent outbreak of COVID-19 has brought tremendous challenges for this population.[4] Migration is a process in which people move to another place with the hope of making their lives better. Unskilled and uneducated people lacking job opportunities in local areas often migrate temporary from remote places to larger cities in India. Nationwide lockdown and travel restrictions placed in order of containing virus spread resulted in unbearable social stigma, isolation, income loss, fear and risk for mental health concerns, including suicide.[56] Recently, an editorial “Mental health of migrant laborers in COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown: Challenges ahead” and another article “COVID-19 pandemic: Mental health challenges of internal migrant workers (IMW) of India” draws timely attention to the increased risk and rates of mental health problems among IMWs in India.[37] Mental health problems can have biological, social, and environmental influences in etiopathogenesis and all these are at heightened interplay during the COVID-19 pandemic for IMWs.[8] The attempts of virus containment affected all components of the social system and thus mental health of internal migrant workers globally but particularly in India. The present COVID-19 pandemic has created extremely challenging social situations. It resulted into more significant social exclusion and risk for mental health problems. Due to inherent vulnerability, migrant workers are at higher risk.[9] Four components of the social-ecological model, individual (intrapersonal), interpersonal relationships, community, and societal policies influence the mental health of an individual.[10] It is essential to recognize that the risk of increased mental health issues that have mainly originated due to social factors and distress should be handled in the context of social-ecological approaches of mental health intervention.[11] The need for mental health care has been sensed by the providers and government officials in several countries, including India. To address the present epidemic related challenges, as an alternative to the face-to-face, mental health services, interventions are being planned and need to be offered in an online mode [Table 1]. In the setting of online mode, psychiatric services offered by trained mental health professionals can be considered the main component to overcome the mental health-related problems.Table 1: Suggestions for addressing concurrent mental health issues of migrants in social ecological health care frameworkFinancial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.