Many experts agree that the mental health effects of Covid-19 will continue to be felt long after the pandemic ends, with grieving families also having to contend with lockdown burial regulations that allow for little closure.
Cape Town – The unbearably tragic stories are becoming more common and heart-wrenching. A Cape Town teenager losing both her parents to Covid-19 on one day ; and three Pretoria siblings hit by a double shock after their father died from Covid-19 three days after they buried their mother due to the virus, to mention but a few cases.
Prolonged grief disorder is characterised by intense yearning/longing for the deceased person or a preoccupation with thoughts or memories of the deceased person accompanied by significant distress or impairment. Pascoe said: "Besides losing your loved one to Covid-19, you have this process where it is already traumatic and hard to accept because the person who died had to enter the hospital on their own, their family were not entitled to visit and most of them were not even able to do a video call.
"There is a family I am still supporting after they lost a family member. Two of the children wanted to commit suicide because they couldn't come to terms with the fact that their mother had died of Covid-19, that's how bad it is. The family were unable to identify the body and the autopsy report did not specify what the deceased had died of, whether it was of heart or kidney failure, for example, all it says is that they died of Covid-19.
Highlighting the options available to those who require bereavement counselling and mental support, Kagee said: "People have a great deal of anxiety about getting infected with Covid, about accessing hospital care and being on a ventilator, which is a very distressing experience for a lot of people. People are very anxious about surviving. Then there is the question of grief and bereavement for loved ones who have lost family members.
"We are faced with a situation that is unprecedented. People can find support through each other, using WhatsApp groups and those kinds of things. As much as it is necessary to grieve it is also necessary to keep people safe by not congregating in large groups. "Psychologists can do some of the work, but a lot of the work needs to be done by the politicians, the policymakers and the police and the other organs of state that need to intervene beyond a mental health level.
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