'We see they are abandoned': Social support between people discharged from long-term psychiatric hospitalizations and their neighbors in Argentina.

BACKGROUND: Neighbors are an important component of personal social network (PSN) and despite their peripheral role and being considered as familiar strangers, they typically provide instrumental support. For people who is discharged after long-term psychiatric hospitalizations, neighbors would offer other types of social support and play a different role fostering the process of becoming full member of a given community. AIMS: To analyze the effects of neighboring on both, those who have had long-term psychiatric hospitalizations and their neighbors. METHOD: Data was collected between 2020 and 2021, including interviews with formal care staff of three housing support experiences in Argentina, and short testimonies from formerly discharged mental health service users living in the community and their neighbors. We analyzed the data using the Framework Method with a focus on the different aspects of social support and equity and reciprocity theories. RESULTS: Results suggest that emotional support was a frequent function displayed by neighbors toward people with a history of long-term psychiatric hospitalizations, which differs from typical neighboring relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Despite reciprocity was observed, users and neighbors displayed an unbalanced helping relationship.

'Now you will understand what it is like to be confined': Did COVID-19 lockdowns affect perceptions about long-term psychiatric hospitalizations? A report from Argentina.

BACKGROUND: Lockdowns have been one of the government's primary measures to control COVID-19, especially during the initial waves of the pandemic, but there is concern on the impact of lockdowns on people's mental health. Confinement is still today the reality of many people with severe mental illness in many places of the world. OBJECTIVE: Given that the general population experienced confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, we sought to explore if that affected perceptions about long-term psychiatric hospitalizations. METHODS: About 134 residents from middle-class neighborhoods in urban settings in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, were surveyed. Participants were asked if they felt emotionally affected by the pandemic and lockdown, and about their perceptions of long-term psychiatric hospitalizations. Association between personal emotional impact by the pandemic or lockdown with perceptions about long-term psychiatric hospitalization were analyzed using chi-square test. Qualitative analysis of pandemic and lockdown effects was held. RESULTS: Respondents tended to overlap the emotional effects of the pandemic and the lockdown. Some responses explicitly referred to confinement. No association was observed between emotional impact by the pandemic or lockdown and perceptions about long-term psychiatric hospitalization among the sample. The general population's perceptions of long-term psychiatric hospitalization do not appear to be affected by the first-hand experience of confinement, which suggest persistence of stigma, and the need to reconsider public policies and actions that attempt to impact on it.

Consultas por lesiones autoinfligidas durante la pandemia por COVID 2019. Análisis 2017-2021 en cuatro jurisdicciones argentinas / Consultations for self-inflicted injuries during the 2019 COVID pandemic. Analysis 2017-2021 in four Argentine jurisdictions

ANTECEDENTES La pandemia por COVID-19 y las medidas preventivas frente al contagio modificaron de manera dramática la vida de las personas. Se ha debatido acerca de las posibles repercusiones de tales cambios en la salud mental de la población y en particular en la conducta suicida. OBJETIVO Describir las consultas por lesiones autoinfligidas en servicios de emergencia seleccionados de cuatro jurisdicciones de Argentina durante el primer año de pandemia en relación con los años 2017 a 2019, focalizando en los meses de febrero, julio y octubre del período bajo estudio. DISEÑO Estudio descriptivo de corte transversal, con análisis de fuentes secundarias, de tres hospitales generales y tres neuropsiquiátricos de cuatro jurisdicciones de Argentina. Los datos se procesaron con el programa Epidat 3.1, calculándose estadísticos descriptivos. RESULTADOS En todo el período se relevaron 452 casos de conducta suicida, analizándose 411. El 73% de los casos fueron en el período previo al 2020. Se observa un aumento en la tasa de consultas por lesiones autoinfligidas en el periodo de pandemia en comparación con el anterior, siendo particularmente significativo en los hospitales neuropsiquiátricos. En la comparación por período (pre-pandemia y pandemia) la derivación a otro establecimiento presentó mayor proporción en el segundo período (pandemia). En cuanto al mecanismo de ocurrencia, el envenenamiento fue menor en el segundo período (pandemia) y el uso de objetos cortantes fue menor en el primer período (pre-pandemia).