For the past two years, survivors of COVID-19 have had to deal with not only the physical long-term effects of the virus, but also their mental health being impacted by the experience. Additionally, feelings of invalidation also arise from two years of being ignored by skeptics of the virus that survivors either know and/or work with.
There are groups for people with Long COVID symptoms, but for the mental health aspect, there isn’t.
While there are group supports from the CMHA, for example, participants of groups such as ones touching on depression cannot talk about COVID these days, making it hard for survivors to have a voice in this matter.
Therefore, I urge two of the Ontario MPPs and the Federal MP that there be action taken to ensure there is mental health support for COVID-19 survivors that is free and accessible and fill in a gap in the mental health care system.
Why is this important?
If you, yourself or if you know a friend or family member who had COVID and had suffered with the mild to moderate symptoms for weeks OR knew a friend or family member who went to the hospital and nearly died, perhaps they were mentally impacted by the experience and would value this level of support missing in the mental health system.
