Current events are all around us whether we watch TV, read the news or scroll through our Facebook feed. With a possible impeachment, climate crisis, shootings and more, it’s hard not to be affected by the latest headlines. However, too much exposure to current events can cause anxiety or feelings of hopelessness, and can impact our mental health. Here are some ways to manage the stress of current events and protect our mental health.
Considerable mass activism and mobilization already existed before these Big Events began — mainly around racist policing, the housing crisis in many countries and global climate change. In 2020, police killings of Black people accelerated this and led to greater participation in Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Similarly, the COVID-19 epidemic’s social distancing policies augmented a burgeoning economic crisis and deepening inequality.
The health consequences of Big Events are contingent — they sometimes lead to major HIV epidemics, but other times seem not to (Friedman, 2010). To understand why this happens, it’s important to study what’s happening during a crisis: the forces and pathways that may affect why a particular Big Event leads to worse short and long term outcomes or not. This research needs to include the measurement of changes in key societal institutions, individual experiences, world views, hopes and normative expectations. We call these “pathway variables.”
Effective public health programs decrease morbidity and mortality during Big Events, but they’re not always easy to maintain. They can be disrupted by budgetary and political pressures, and may not have enough funding or resources to function as they did before the crisis. They also can be impeded by a lack of surveillance systems to track outbreaks and public health impacts, or a failure to implement policies that ensure people’s access to services like food banks and mental health services during the crisis.