In the March 2023 volume of The Lancet of the Americas, members of The UWI Faculty of Medical Sciences contextualize the existing burden of mental health disease that afflicts the Caribbean and the accelerated burden that COVID-19 precipitated.

The article is titled “Leveraging Research, Community and Collaboration Towards Robust COVID-19 Mental Health Response in the Caribbean” and quotes medical literature statistics that demonstrate high levels of anxiety and depression (669 per 100,000 in 2019) within the Caribbean in the pre-pandemic era. The complex interface of COVID-19 and mental health may aggravate these statistics.

It further notes that the downstream effects of disrupted global mental health are direct disease and, indirectly, loss of quality of life — all with significant hidden costs.

The article stresses that COVID-19 should be considered both an acute short- term and chronic long-term stressor on mental health. As such it calls for CARICOM to be enabled as a regional health body to recognise and prioritize the mental health of its people and develop a sustainable plan for action.