- Argument1 of 2›
On public health systems
Access to mental health treatment dictates the mental health outcomes of quarantines.
The argument
Whether a period of quarantine damages mental health depends less on the confinement itself than on what is available to people during it. If a nation's health system places an emphasis on mental health, and its delivery channels can be quickly adapted to incorporate telemedicine, then the long-term mental health outcomes can be managed. The second condition matters as much as the first, because quarantine removes precisely the in-person contact through which mental health care is normally delivered. A system that can move consultation onto remote channels keeps treating people through the confinement; one that cannot has its provision suspended at the moment demand rises. The contrast is visible where neither condition holds. For example, in China, where an estimated 760 million citizens underwent a residential lockdown of some kind, mental health remains something of a taboo. It is stigmatized and mental health care is not forthcoming, and the Chinese government emphasizes primary and emergency care in its budget and has long-neglected mental health. The two compound one another: stigma suppresses the demand that would justify provision, and thin provision leaves the stigma unchallenged, so a population enters confinement with neither the habit of seeking help nor much in the way of services to seek it from. Early estimates from China indicate that some 42% of citizens who were in isolation in January and February of 2020 are exhibiting signs of anxiety caused by isolation. On this argument that figure reflects the health system as much as the isolation, since the same weeks of confinement met a population with nowhere to take the strain. In other countries, where mental health care is more widely available, this will not be the case, which is why whether quarantine is bad for your mental health depends on other factors.
Context
The ability of public health systems to respond to the evolving needs of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly mental health systems, will dictate the long-term mental health outcomes of the population.
Premises
Counter-arguments
This is a factor for how widespread the mental health impact will be, but it will not determine whether or not quarantine will be a negative or positive on people’s mental health outcome. No country’s mental health treatment capabilities can effectively cope with tens of millions of its citizens entering quarantine.