Programs for Stress and Mental Health Support

Programs for Stress and Mental Health Support Stress is a major psychological problem that impacts different populations in society. Whenever stress is prolonged, it leads to medical problems and increases mental health risks (Liu, 2017). Long-term stress causes depression and anxiety, which jeopardizes the mental health stability of an individual. Stress is a specific response caused by emergency problems and situational pressures, which leads to physical and emotional tension. Stress may also lead to muscle tension, pain, and sleep problems. Stress takes different forms, such as physical, emotional, or cognitive, leading to memory problems. Everyone experiences stress; however, the major difference is the intensity and the impact on an individual's mental health. Stress is classified into chronic and acute stress. Chronic stress is experienced for a long period. The major causes of chronic stress are pandemics and social problems. Chronic stress goes for a minimum of weeks and thus needs a well-established program for management. Acute stress is short-termed based and lasts for short such as hours. However, acute stress may become chronic when not efficiently and timely handled. Stress affects the body and mental health by releasing hormones that make the brain alert and increase muscle tension. Stress jeopardizes mental health due to memory problems, fatigue, exhaustion, insomnia, loss of control, and aggression (Yu et al., 2018). Therefore, public health programs are suitable for chronic and acute stress. The paper addresses public health programs to manage stress with a focus on the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Impacts of COVID-19 on Mental Health and Initiation of Public Health Programs
The major reason behind many public health programs in stress management is COVID-19 and its impacts on mental health. Due to the emergence of the pandemic in 2019 and social changes, the mental health of different populations deteriorated (Talevi et al., 2020). The major population impacted are the youths leading to exposure to substance use. Besides, the pandemic led to the loss of jobs, especially among young adults leading to stress and poor mental health. The pandemic also led to an increased rate of depression and anxiety among youths and young adults. The major cause is job loss and economic downturn, which also cause lowered self-esteem and distress. Due to different signs of poor mental health, including suicidal ideation, the government, with the help of the private sector, focused on public health amenities and programs to restore mental health. For instance, in 2021, up to 41% of the adults indicated the major signs of depressive disorder and anxiety (Kar et al., 2021). Substance abuse and suicidal rates also increased due to COVID-19-related stress. Therefore, the COVID-19 data shows the adverse impacts of stress on mental health.
Social isolation is the major cause of stress and poor mental health during the pandemic. Isolation during the pandemics reduced social contacts among individuals limiting their ability to interact with other parties. Social isolation causes stress and poor mental health since an individual develops a negated mindset which affects the mood and the body (Tonon et al., 2020). Therefore, it ca...