⁍ Services for mentally ill and substance abuse patients have been disrupted worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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⁍ Only 7% of the 130 countries responding to the WHO’s survey reported that all mental health services were fully open.

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⁍ 93% reporting curtailed services for various disorders.

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– The flu season isn’t over, and the H1N1 strain is still spreading. The World Health Organization says H1N1—also known as swine flu—is disrupting mental health services in some 130 countries, Reuters reports. “We think that this is a forgotten aspect of COVID-19, in a sense part of the challenges that we face is that this is an under-funded area historically,” says the WHO’s director of mental health and substance use. “We estimate, and preliminary information is telling us, that there may be an increase in people with mental, neurological, and substance abuse related conditions that will need attention.”