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Pandemic highlights need in psychological education of residents, says scientist

Speaking of detected signs of insufficient psychological literacy, the psychologist noted that even considering that Russians in general were in comfortable conditions without experiencing lack of food or heating and having access to the information about the situation, they still didn’t feel well and didn’t know how to improve their condition

MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. The reaction of Russians to the situation with the spread of the coronavirus infection shows insufficient psychological literacy of residents; it is necessary to work with them using educational initiatives, head of the department of extreme psychology of the Moscow State University, director of the Emergency Psychological Aid Center of the Emergencies Ministry Yulia Shoigu said during an expert online discussion organized by the Lomonosov Moscow State University on Friday.

"The pandemic, like no other situation, highlighted such a problem as people’s insufficient psychological literacy in general. Having analyzed those calls that we received, there were quite a few of them, <…> we noted that the majority were related to the fact that people were forced to change their usual way of life, the psychological wellbeing significantly declined because of that," she said.

Speaking of detected signs of insufficient psychological literacy of residents, the psychologist noted that even considering that Russians in general were in comfortable conditions without experiencing lack of food or heating and having access to the information about the situation, they still didn’t feel well and didn’t know how to improve their condition.

"We felt alarmed, we were afraid, we weren’t feeling well, we felt miserable, very often without understanding what’s going on with us, which means not knowing what can be done in order to feel better. <…> And this leads to a thought that we don’t know that much about how we are built in terms of mental life, and, as a result, we have a rather scarce assortment of those means we can use to improve the quality of life. <…> So the main lesson of the pandemic is the realization of high demand for psychological education," she added.

According to the latest global statistics, about 97.5 mln people have been infected worldwide and over 2 mln deaths have been reported. To date, 3,677,352 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 3,081,536 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 68,412 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.