People may be returning to normal as COVID-19 vaccines become available, but the effects of the pandemic are ongoing. Local mental health professionals say the psychological impact of the pandemic is something many people are still struggling with.
Rollie Hawk, chief information officer with Arrowleaf, said the agency is already seeing an increase in clients, and that many of them are seeking mental health care for the first time.
"But there's also kind of this tidal wave that we all kind of sense is approaching, where so many people who had never been in sort of crisis situations before, or had just this sort of underlying level of anxiety and depression, that there's so much more of that because of what people have been through over the last year," he said.
A national 988 suicide hotline is also set to launch next year, something Hawk said is an indication of how critical mental health care is for many people.
