Facing the challenge: COVID-19 and occupational therapy

The call for papers for this issue started out with the theme of mental health and then COVID-19 happened and we expanded our outlook to include our reactions and responses to this pandemic through case studies. The Bulletin received a huge response.

I don’t think I need to go into details of the pandemic’s beginnings in late December 2019 as we are overwhelmed with information and misinformation. What perhaps we were hoping is that it would pass like a flu season, but it hasn’t and we are left with the consequences. As the months pass, the research is showing that this is definitely not a flu (CDC, 2020) – that in many cases, and somewhat unexpectedly, there are long-term effects to body and mind.

COVID-19 has taken over the lives of everyone in the world. We wake up with it and go to sleep with it. The media provides up-to-date statistics; the governments declare approaches to dealing with it while trying to keep a semblance of the lives we have been used to. There is an impact on everyone’s general fitness, wellness and mental health, on interpersonal relationships, and the spiritual and ethical integrity of humanity as we know it (Mynard, 2020; WFOT, 2020b).

We are dependent on technology-social media, smart phones, digitally based responses and telehealth (Mayo Clinic, 2020). We are being required to rewire and adapt to a new normal. But where would we be without the technological advances which brought us the ability to communicate remotely in the midst of this pandemic?

COVID-19 brings with it not just personal isolation and mental health problems but the creation of a changing global interactivity. There seemed to be desperation to continue as we were in the early stages of the pandemic, but attitudes have changed and strategies were put in place to conduct research, educate our students, deliver services and interact with our community on a daily basis acutely aware of the health inequities prevalent in our nations and how they affect vulnerable and at-risk populations (Conner, 2020).

The articles and case studies in this issue share hope, adaptation, positivity in the face of this global health crisis. The adaptability of occupational therapists to meet the needs of our population has been phenomenal … We are expanding our roles and scope to become activists, agents and advocates. We are taking on the necessary technologies to provide care and interventions in ways we had not imagined would become everyday practice.

Educators are changing their approaches to teaching and learning to accommodate the social distance requirements being implemented in our societies for the duration. It will be interesting to see how these approaches may be incorporated into future teaching and learning and how that will impact on educational strategies.

As we manage the COVID-19 and change our modus operandum to suit the immediate and unprecedented needs of our clients, we also face the challenge of a world transforming almost by the day. On top of the health disaster, there is global warming and climate change – witness the wild fires of the west coast of the USA, the east coast of Australia, and the Amazon, the flooding of river systems such as the Yangtse in China, and the severe typhoons and hurricanes hitting our coastlines. There is global unrest and political instability. Our governments and economies are being challenged by socio-political disruptions creating the highest level of displacement and migration yet seen in modern society. We don’t know yet the tipping point of this pandemic. We need to be prepared.

Looking to the future, we find an aspect of the virus which is becoming more well-documented as we approach our ninth month living with it – its duration and its long-term effect on individuals and their families and communities. We are learning that we will be heavily involved in providing post COVID rehabilitation for people affected for a long time to come, not just for individual’s cardiovascular problems as might be expected, but also the neurological, musculoskeletal, psychosocial, and general quality of life (Zeng et al., 2020).

I hope that the articles in this issue provide some insights into present practice in dealing with the effects of the pandemic and related mental health issues so far. We are faced with changing our traditional approach to occupational therapy interventions. We need to embrace different ways of offering services, different ways to apply our knowledge and skills, locally and globally, and we need to persevere.