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APP| Published By AEIRC| https://doi.org/10.29052/2412-3188.v7.i1.2020.6-8 

Ann. psychophysiol. 
ISSN 2412-3188 (Online) | 2410-1354 (Print) 

  
Short Communication                                                                                   

The chaos of healing: Risking mental health 
amid COVID19 in Pakistan  
Sadaf Ahmed  
Psychophysiology Research Lab, MAHQ Biological Research Centre, University of Karachi.  
Advance Educational Institute & Research Centre (AEIRC). 
 

 

In any natural disaster, burdens of fear, insecurity, and stigmatization are 
ubiquitous and may act as hurdles to proper health interventions. Based on an 
understanding gleaned from a historical point of view of the psychosocial effect of 
past viral epidemics, the development and implementation of mental health 
assessment, support, treatment, and services are vital and persuasive aims for the 
health response to the 2019-nCoV outbreak. COVID19 related Catastrophes vary 
in dimensions and scope but have affected single or multiple-family residences, 
districts, populations, regions, or the state as a whole. Virtual Mental health crisis 
intervention started helping communities mitigate the effects of the disaster and 
related loss by providing family, neighbourhood, and community preparedness 
and resilience.  
 
COVID-19 has brought serious social-psychological impact to the people, 
especially those directly affected or quarantined and thus with limited access to 
face-to-face communiqué and customary social-psychological interventions. To 
deal with the crucial mental health crisis, various models have been suggested and 
started crisis intervention by utilizing numerous tools and technology, that not 
only integrated the role of doctors, therapists, psychologists, and social workers to 
carry out mediations to affectees, their families, and medical staff but also setting 
models of psychological crisis intervention response system that is applicable for 
urgent social and psychological problems1,2. 
 
However, the times of COVID have exposed society on many levels especially 
pseudoscience and potentially harmful practices in the mental health care field. As 
a responsible academician and scientist one knows that mental health care must 
be ample and aimed at the population patterns as a whole when it comes to shifting 
beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes especially during such unprecedented times. 
Extraordinary supervision is needed to manage and introduce awareness sessions, 
investigations, and prevention interventions in dealing with mental health 
challenges and illnesses. The mental health field in developing countries like 
Pakistan is not secure to “quackery.” One can be exposed to dubious or risky 
conduct. Amid the COVID19 chaos, people are so vulnerable and open to budding 
numbers of self-proclaimed mental health experts with multi-shaded disgraceful 
claims. Some of these practitioners even hold doctoral degrees in social 
management, biological or allied 

Citation: Ahmed S. The chaos of 
healing: Risking mental health amid 
COVID19 in Pakistan. APP. 2020; 
7(1):6-8 
 
Corresponding Author Email: 
sadaf@aeirc-edu.com 
 
DOI: 10.29052/2412-3188.v7.i1.2020.6-8 
 
Received 01/08/2020 
 
Accepted 31/08/2020 
 
Published 01/10/2020 
 
Copyright © The Author(s). 2020 This  
 is an open access article distributed 
under the terms of the Creative 
Commons Attribution 4.0 International 
License, which permits unrestricted 
use, distribution, and reproduction in 
any medium, provided the original 
author and source are credited.  
 

 

Funding: The author(s) received no 
specific funding for this work. 

Conflicts of Interests: The authors 
have declared that no competing 
interests exist. 
 
 

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APP| Published By AEIRC| Volume 7 Issue 1  

 

ISSN 2412-3188 (Online) | 2410-1354 (Print) 

 

sciences which make it tough for the people 
to separate the good from the bad. However, 
most of them hold only 16 years of basic 
education without any proper clinical 
training or scientific background of mental 
disorders. My anticipation in raising this 
issue will help to support victims and 
caregivers with the evidence they need to not 
only identify a kook or a quack but to evade 
doubtful and unconventional treatments 
they may attempt to prescribe.  It is already 
reported that with emerging mental health 
concerns and interest in human behaviors, 
there is an immense interest of people from 
every field of biological, social, and 
management sciences and they jumped into 
the field as a trainer, healers, motivational 
speakers, practitioners, therapists, experts, 
etc. However, it is needed that they must at 
least be aware of the mental health diligence, 
in which any treatment or cure is real science 
that deals with biological phenomena 
inclusive of systemic and cellular change or 
pathology that leads to signs and symptoms 
of any illness or behavioral alteration. At its 
core, one needs to identify the role of 
probable intervention or cure of particular 
psycho-physiological pathology that leads to 
harm. According to available scientific 
literature, this is what makes therapy or 
healing a real science with social and moral 
values. And mental health is a real medical 
discipline that directly involves the brain and 
body that have consequences for behavior or 
vice versa. The science of bad mental health 
needs to be approached. Nevertheless, I think 
every professional of mental health, in 
particular, should take the time every so 
often and look at their roles, their actions, and 
their explanations via a scientific lens. 
 
In recent times, it has been frequently 
observed that such professionals not only 
diagnosing patients with a range of 
psychiatric illnesses that aren’t justified but 
also there is a lack of authentic licensing or 
membership bodies in this part of the world 
and no one to constabulary this criminality. 
Few of these proclaimed bodies funded by 
many reputed pharmaceutical and bodies’ 
haughtily disclosed that it is their 

responsibility to protect the earning power or 
career of psychiatrists/psychologists/pseudo-
intellectuals. As the history of the mental health 
showed a monopoly with practically zero 
accountability and zero liability for its failures. 
This has allowed psychologists, faith healers, 
psychiatrists and other mental health 
practitioners to commit far more than just 
monetary or fame scams. The roster of 
corruption committed by these “pros” ranges 
from deception, medicine felonies, 
psychological abuse to assault etc. As per 
approximations, there are over 600,000 quacks 
in Pakistan providing primary and elementary 
healthcare to deprived populaces in both urban 

and rural areas of the country. This includes 
mental health practitioners in metropolitan 
cities and mostly also known as healers 
providing care to patients with psychological 
and neurological illnesses around sanctuaries 
and in cemeteries. The sufferers in current 
scenario are not only unavoidably vulnerable 
and susceptible but also their accurate 
dealing demands the highest level of 
responsibility and reliability in the expert. As 
experience has shown that there are many 
illegitimate mental health practitioners, there 
is a need for licensing body at the provincial 
and national level as well as a database that 
must lists type, variety and categories of 
qualifications, guidelines, and ethical 
boundaries within the mental health industry 
with constitutional revisions. There is no 
place for criminal intent or deed in the field 
of mental health. This information should be 
presented as a public amenity in greater 
virtue of public health and ethics, to bring an 
end immoral practice and exploitation in the 
mental health care field. 
  
As access to a proper mental health care 
facility has been an obstacle during a 
pandemic and most mental health services 
and facilities remained non-functional with 
the restriction of transportation and finances 
added to the misery. Countries like Pakistan 
has still a huge stigma for Mental health 
issues3, 4. When health science researchers 
and epidemiologists expect that the 
wellbeing toll of COVID-19 is tricky to 
predict and a Mental Health Pandemic has 



 

   

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APP| Published By AEIRC| Volume 7 Issue 1  

 

ISSN 2412-3188 (Online) | 2410-1354 (Print) 

 

been considered as Second Wave of COVID-
19. Provided that pandemics are stressful and 
risky to brain health, there are already 
numerous vulnerable and affected subjects 
who have been administered therapies or 
interventions without knowing clinical 
guidelines and biological precipitating 
causes during such disasters as per non-
regulated practice in Pakistan. This caused 
more harm than good, given the unique 
circumstances of COVID-19, when data is 
still adding significantly to identify 
underlying mechanisms associated with 
deprived mental health. Thus to improve the 
effectiveness of psychosomatic management, 
professionals need to be systematically well-
versed about directing factors and any one-
size-fits-all action will not do any good. The 
digital modes also need an evidence-based 
approach as well as artificial intelligence-
based adaptive trials are also needed to 
establish understandings of diverse 
threatening signs for mental illnesses. The 
over aim should be Based practicability and 
effectiveness of the model of psychological 
interventions in order to help affectees and 
general population affected by disaster5.  
 
Moreover, to help relieve psychological 
aftershock of the public emergency with 
effective utilization of human 
resources/tools and efficient as well as 
ethical training of mental health task force to 
accompany trained psychologist, 
psychiatrists and other health experts. 
 

References 
1. De Sousa A, Mohandas E, Javed A. 

Psychological interventions during 
COVID-19: Challenges for low and 
middle income countries. Asian J 
Psychiatr. 2020: Article 102128. 

2. Raphael B. Overview of the development 
of psychological support in emergencies. 
Advances In Disaster Mental Health And 
Psychological Support. India: Voluntary 
Health Association of India Pressl; 2006. 

3. Farooq SM, Sachwani SA, Haider SI, 
Iqbal SA, Parpio YN, Saeed H. Mental 
Health Challenges and Psycho-social 

Interventions amid COVID-19 Pandemic: 
A Call to Action for Pakistan. JCPSP. 
2020;30(6):59-62. 

4. Mamun MA, Ullah I. COVID-19 suicides 
in Pakistan, dying off not COVID-19 fear 
but poverty? - The forthcoming economic 
challenges for a developing country. 
Brain Behav Immun. 2020; 87:163-166. 

5. Holmes EA, O'Connor RC, Perry VH, 
Tracey I, Wessely S, Arseneault L, Ballard 
C, Christensen H, Silver RC, Everall I, 
Ford T. Multidisciplinary research 
priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a 
call for action for mental health science. 
Lancet Psychiatry. 2020; 7(6): 547-560. 
 

 
 


