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Thursday, September 2, 2021
As the pandemic spread in early 2020, Healthy Minds Policy Initiative’s researchers analyzed the
potential mental health impacts of widespread fear about the virus, loss of friends and family
members, unemployment and social isolation as a result of virus mitigation policies. These
impacts, we predicted, would include heightened anxiety, depression and substance use, as well
as up to 260 new adult deaths statewide from suicide and substance abuse.
Eighteen months after the first COVID case appeared in Oklahoma, we examine the observed
impacts of the pandemic on behavioral health conditions, mental health-related deaths, levels
of unmet need and changes in how Oklahomans access mental health treatment as a result of
the pandemic. We also offer recommendations to mitigate the ongoing mental health realities
of the virus as local and state policymakers move to combat the pandemic’s overall impacts.
To read the report, click here.
For a one-page overview, click here.
For additional information and resources regarding COVID-19 and mental health, click here.