Journal of Mental Health and Substance Abuse

Abstract The World Economic Forum has termed the COVID 19 lockdown across many nations of the world as the ‘world’s biggest psychological experiment’. It is estimated that the mental toll of quarantine and lockdown affected about a third of the world’s population. This year will certainly go down in history as one with an unprecedented challenge affecting all of mankind. The tremendous impact on mental and psychological health is still evolving and we may not have seen the peak as yet. The downstream effects continue to surface, keeping counsellors, psychiatrists, psychologists, befrienders, social workers, medical practitioners, and volunteers very busy. Practically everyone’s lifestyle changed and continue to change. The new norm will not bring forth ‘business as usual’ post COVID19. It is time to collaborate, share ideas and best practices, support each other and align with guidelines from international bodies such as The World Health Organization, The Communicable Diseases Center and The International Federation for Mental Health. The authors of this paper are some of the members of the executive committee of The Global Alliance for Mental Health Advocates (GAMHA). GAMHA is a special global mental health project initiated by Silver Ribbon (Singapore) and Lundbeck. The vision for the group is to make mental health a global priority. GAMHA serves as a platform to connect mental health advocates and stakeholders, from varied background across the world to discuss, network, share best practices, ideas and knowledge pertaining to mental health promotion and advocacy. The diverse perspectives and background of members makes the discussions extremely robust and vibrant. GAMHA has come up with some recommendations, which we hope can be applied or customized appropriately, across all cultures and all nations, whether they are in the eastern or western world. 

Keywords: Mental health; COVID 19; Quarantine, Lock-down, Resilience, Post- traumatic stress disorder.