More than seven times the number of students and teachers of Russian universities’ appeals to psychologists has increased in covid times. But beyond the thresholds of universities – at school, at work, in hospitals, at home – there were no fewer people who needed it. The psychological support of the Covid-19 pandemic has just been presented in a collective monograph prepared by psychologists, psychiatrists, representatives of the Ministry of Health and their Spanish and Italian colleagues.
Lucky 0 to 6
Seeking psychological help has ceased to be exotic over the past two years. More than 10 thousand calls were received by psychologists in the first months of the pandemic from confused people. The overwhelming majority of the callers did not know what was happening to them and what to do to make them feel better mentally. Against this background, the public attitude towards attempts to consult a psychologist has changed, they have become common and acceptable.
During the pandemic, psychologists actively provided assistance to those who fell ill (including in the “red zones”), their relatives, those who recovered after covid, experiencing cognitive and emotional disorders, volunteers, and everyone who was struggling with self-isolation. As a result of this new experience, new methods have already been developed, for example, assessing the emotional state of doctors and patients.
The collective “psychological portrait” of Russians against the background of other countries and peoples looks quite worthy, says the editor and one of the authors of the collection, the dean of the psychology department of Moscow State University, professor Yuri Zinchenko. And the experience gained from the experience of the pandemic, he said, gives the right to an optimistic forecast: Covid-19 will not lead to the mental destruction of Russian society.
Of course, everyone experienced the pandemic “in their own way.” But there were also general patterns, starting with the fact that the relatives of the students unwittingly found themselves at a distance with them “at the same desk.”
It is interesting that the most successful age group in the pandemic was citizens from 0 to 6 years old – they received an opportunity, incomparable with previous times, to “have a lot of communication” with their parents. And the most affected were adherents of an active lifestyle. The people of the “silver age”, about whom everyone was worried, turned out to be not so psychologically vulnerable due to the “habit of solitude.”
Sleep and sniff
At the heart of people’s feelings about a pandemic was the concept of a “difficult to control threat”, says Timofey Nestik, head of the laboratory of social and economic psychology at the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ph.D. This impossibility of control set the growth of anxiety and included all kinds of psychological defense mechanisms up to belief in conspiracy theories. And the daily reminders of death, he said, strengthened authoritarian attitudes – hopes for a strong hand, reliance on traditional values and polarization on “friends” and “aliens.” All this, moreover, destroyed the belief in the ability to influence one’s future. Symptoms, according to the psychologist, were most pronounced in women and young people.
The chief physician of the N.A. Alekseev Psychiatric Clinical Hospital No. 1 of the Moscow Health Department, Professor Georgy Kostyuk drew attention to the sharp increase in panic conditions in people, sometimes not difficult, which you can cope with yourself if you know how And a person should have such knowledge.
The first sign of a disorder, or vice versa, the normalization of the psychological and mental state of a person, he called disturbed or normal sleep.
Over the past two years, “the psychology of smell” has become a separate topic. Yuri Zinchenko clarified that modern high-tech equipment was purchased, which allows you to restore the lost sense of smell. This also requires special training.
I will bewitch and tell fortunes. Illegally
In addition to these problems, the pandemic revealed a considerable deficit of psychological assistance and an even greater willingness to provide it by those who have nothing to do with psychology.
“One of the most important problems that we have faced is the lack of legal regulation,” says Yulia Shoigu, director of the Center for Emergency Psychological Aid of the Ministry of Emergencies of Russia, head of the Department of Extreme Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University, Candidate of Psychological Sciences Yulia Shoigu.
Today, according to her, about 50 thousand professional psychologists work in Russia in various fields (schools, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs).
However, at the beginning of the pandemic, 7 million participants responded to the tag “Ypsychologist” on the Internet, and now there are already 8.4 million. If we consider that every year Russian universities graduate about 6,000 psychologists, we will have to assume that these self-appointed millions have no education, or have a very dubious one, says Yulia Shoigu.
Such unfortunate psychologists receive a “crust” after 2-3 months of training, “which I am regularly offered for some reason with 40 percent discounts,” Yulia Shoigu sneers at.
Therefore, on the agenda is the issue of adopting the law “On Psychological Activity”, which will enable the system of regulation of psychological services, among which there are now plenty of proposals to “bewitch”, “tell fortunes on cards” and “paint the mandala.” A list of professional psychologists, verification, accreditation and certification of their activities may soon be needed, but first a law must be passed.
Scientists also noted that during the pandemic, international cooperation expanded and most often our psychologists contacted American and Chinese colleagues, and in September they even held an international forum on psychological support for the pandemic.
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