*The COVID-19 Pandemic and Mental Health DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102947*

psychopharmacology, and brain stimulation practices during COVID-19, also catering to special populations like children and adolescents, older adults, perinatal groups and rehabilitation settings and can be referred.

In general, mental health and related issues are not recognized in public and with global pandemic these silent and insidious issues can be either misdiagnosed or go unnoticed completely. Thus, the role of mental health professional can be vital in this regard especially in educating, training, encouraging mental health-promoting behaviors, maintaining cross-specialty integration, facilitating problems solving approaches, empowering patients and allied professionals, and finally enabling selfcare strategies for resilience [16]. Despite the common mental health problems and disorders among patients and HCW during the pandemic, most health professionals working in isolation units and hospitals did not receive any training in providing mental health care [13]. In this regard, mental health services, facilities and specialized psychiatric treatment teams including psychologists, psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses should be established to address psychological health concerns in the general public and we need to validate and value their immense selfless contribution. W.H.O. has previously highlighted the chronic underfunding of mental health prior to the pandemic, but the pandemic has suddenly increased its requirement, especially in the South Asian countries which suffer from an inadequate psychiatrist-patient ratio. Based on this, the Primary Care first and Collaborative Care model which has been suggested by Türközer and Öngür, teletherapy: Telemedicine and teletherapy should be established to provide psychological help which can be a boon during restrictive conditions of an infectious disease outbreak like COVID-19, but at the same time, limited accessibility and poor Internet connectivity in various areas are the existing challenges. Standardization of treatment, online surveys and local management of stable patients to reduce risk of infections can also be of help during this crisis [16]. It is suggested that public health machinery should conduct mental health audits during epidemiological emergencies which are critical for effective management of community mental health. Bouncing forwards for a new normal, we need to:

