How has the pandemic hurt the psyche of Canadians?
It’s a question that nagged at Michael Cooper since Canada’s first COVID-19 cases were identified. Sitting on a call with his colleagues at Mental Health Research Canada on March 10, Cooper discussed how the pandemic had the potential to upend the mental health of many, as evidenced by large-scale disruptive events that came before it, like the financial crisis of 2008 or the Fort McMurray fires of 2016.
“People were feeling anxious,” Cooper reflected on the general psyche of the time. “They were feeling nervous.”
It was a conversation that many elsewhere were having as well. From the Canadian Mental Health Association, to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, to big human resources companies like Morneau Shepell, major organizations knew that COVID-19 and the public health measures to combat it were going to hurt Canadians psychologically, whether the pandemic lasted two months or two years.