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HANDLING COVID 19 PANDEMIC SITUATION:
PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF COVID 19 PANDEMIC
ON GENERAL POPULATION

Family time can include games that parents may not have had time to play thus far. This is a
COVID-19 outbreak was one of the biggest medical challenges to human- good opportunity to reconnect with the family playing board games, cards, carrom, antak-
kind in recent times. World Health Organization (WHO) declared shari, etc.
COVID-19 to be a pandemic on March 11, 2020. A sense of panic was set among all aided by the
increasing number of positive cases with each passing day and the rumors and myths about
COVID-19. Both the central and state governments had issued advisory to the people to maintain
social distancing to stop the community spread. In view of this, the Prime Minister of India
declared “lockdown” in the whole country starting from midnight of March 25, 2020.

“Lockdown” is an emergency protocol, which basically means preventing public from moving
from one area to the other. In this scenario, all educational institutions, shopping centers, facto-
ries, o ces, transport vehicles, airports, railways, metros, buses, etc., are completely shut down,
except hospitals, police stations, emergency services such as re station and petrol pumps, and
groceries were open to meet common people requirement.

While lockdown can be a signi cant and e ective strategy of social distancing to tackle the
increasing spread of the highly infectious COVID-19 virus, at the same time, it can have some
degree of psychological impact on the public too. It is well known that quarantine/isolation for
any cause was also associated with signi cant mental health problems ranging from anxiety, fear,
depressive symptoms, sense of loneliness, sleep disturbances, anger, etc., in the immediate few
days of isolation and later had symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression even
after 3–4 weeks of discharge. Lockdown had di erent psychological impact in di erent age
groups as well: children may feel restless as they may run out of the options to keep themselves
engaged; elderly may feel that their movement has been restricted; and adults may feel burdened
with household chores in the absence of housemaids/servants.

In this context, to handle Mental Health Issues, several advisories were issued by Corporate-HSE.

MAJOR THINGS TO DO AS PARENTS TO DEAL WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES OF CHILDREN

1. Children are constantly exposed to information related to the pandemic in TV news chan-
nels and social media.
They must be provided unambiguous and clear information regarding the pandemic in an
age- appropriate language. Aim: To reassure them and reduce exaggerated threat percep-
tion.
Avoid discussing the topic frequently in front of children.
Answer your children's queries but gure out a way of striking a balance.
Answer questions honestly. Don't dismiss their worries. Don't make false promises.

2. Family Time:
Figure a new routine for household and child must include academic work, chores, play,
interaction with peers and relatives over the phone/other media.
Have a set time for meals and bedtime.
It would be wonderful to also have some indoor exercise as part of this routine – for 4
instance, yoga, stretches, skipping, etc. The routine must be made collaboratively, including
changes over time.