Potential Solutions to Selected Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health Relevant Also for the Post-COVID Era

Abstract

This article is based on the results of a survey conducted during the period from December 2020 to May 2021 involving 300 respondents in different countries: Italy, Spain, Hungary, Great Britain, the USA, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, and African countries. The research was carried out on the basis of narrative case studies. In order to obtain an adequate methodological answer in regard to the focus of the research, which showed the personal and subjective views of the respondents, a qualitative approach using in-depth online interviews was desirable. Each interview lasted 90 minutes. The aim of the survey was to find out how designing your own online intervention program can help respondents alleviate their difficulties. It is based on human-centered approaches; methods of reducing stress; methods of strengthening the presence-focused mode; the so-called ‘here and now’ approach; and some relevant theses of Christian missiology and non-radicalized Islam that promote human health and dignity. The condition for entry into the survey was the age of the participants (over 40) and experience of at least one of the psychological consequences of, or situations in, a long-term psychological burden due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey participants became infected with COVID-19 or had recovered from it before entering the survey. Many of them had other associated health problems, including COVID-19 and its psychological consequences, chronic illnesses, were at risk of poverty, social exclusion or insufficient professional health and social care. During the survey, the online intervention program focused on gradually accompanying survey participants towards their full autonomy (for example, in thinking, naming the feelings they experience), encouraging them to take responsibility for their lives and encouraging them by positively evaluating their achievements and the results they achieved over the course of the year. The participants in the survey showed a significant weakening of rumination, which is behind the psychological difficulties, especially mood disorders and anxiety disorders. The online intervention program worked intensively with survey participants in line with the need to activate their change process. The intention of the online intervention program was also to help them regain their inner balance and their full place in society they had before the pandemic. The survey showed that even in the post-COVID period, special online strategies aimed at promoting mental and physical health should not lose their relevance. The results of such research may provide relevant and inspiring stimuli for further and new specific research, studies and analyses in the field of the benefits of specialized online interventions aimed at strengthening physical and mental health. Especially during heightened critical periods, which global crises and their consequences bring into various areas of life for the entire population. These are, for example, crises in the form of other pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a far-reaching impact on today's society.