The COVID-19 pandemic is a major health crisis associated with adverse mental health consequences. This study examined 2908 calls made to a national mental health helpline over a 10 month period, 2 months prior to (Pre-COVID) and 8 months during the pandemic phase, that incorporated the imposition of a partial lockdown, followed by the removal and reintroduction of restrictive measures locally. Data collected included reason/s for call assistance, gender, age and number of daily diagnosed cases and deaths due to COVID-19. In the Pre-COVID phase, calls for assistance were related to information needs and depression. With the imposition of a partial lockdown, coupled with the first local deaths and spikes in number of diagnosed cases, a significant increase in number of calls targeting mental health, medication management and physical and financial issues were identified. Following the removal of local restrictions, the number of calls decreased significantly; however, with the subsequent reintroduction of restrictions, coupled with the rise in cases and deaths, assistance requested significantly targeted informational needs. Hence, whilst calls in the initial phase of the pandemic mainly targeted mental health issues, over time this shifted towards information seeking requests, even within a context where the number of deaths and cases had significantly risen.

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Retraction type (multiple responses allowed):  Unreliable findings   Lab error  Inconsistent data  Analytical error  Biased interpretation   Other:  Irreproducible results X Failure to disclose a major competing interest likely to influence interpretations or recommendations  Unethical research   Fraud   Data fabrication  Fake publication  Other:  Plagiarism  Self plagiarism  Overlap  Redundant publication *  Copyright infringement  Other legal concern:  Editorial reasons   Handling error  Unreliable review(s)  Decision error  Other:  Other: Results of publication (only one response allowed):  are still valid. Xwere found to be overall invalid. Author's conduct (only one response allowed):  honest error  academic misconduct Xnone (not applicable in this casee.g. in case of editorial reasons) * Also called duplicate or repetitive publication. Definition: "Publishing or attempting to publish substantially the same work more than once." * The link under the CrossMark logo follows the pattern: http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.4236/...&domain=pdf&date_stamp=yyyy-mm-dd yyyy-mm-dd is the date (ISO 8601).

A global pandemic raises concerns among each human being. However, this is a more pressing reality among vulnerable groups, such as the elderly. It is the scope of this study to investigate the potential psycho-social risks that COVID-19 presents to the elderly in Malta, with a particular focus on their holistic mental health status. Public data, gathered and published by Richmond Foundation Malta, a local NGO, was analyzed during an eleven-month period (2020/2021) during eight different time-points. Two findings were highlighted: first, the roll out of vaccines is still not a room for complacency. This pandemic experience has been, and still is, a learning experience especially to authorities on how to respond to the needs of society, particularly the vulnerable groups. Secondly, results show that generally, a healthy life-style was maintained among most elderly in this study. However, virtual contact with family and friends declined over time, virtual religious programs were maintained, while social isolation increased. This study addressed the importance of attending to the holistic wellness of the elderly during critical times like the pandemic, be they the physical, social, emotional, and religious realities of this population. Furthermore, closing the digital divide was found as a truly relevant realm that calls for more serious considerations. Hopefully, this assists the elderly both in self-care and their concerns about other-care as well. A number of practical recommendations were presented. Keywords: COVID-19, elderly, older adults, psychosocial impact, well-being, mental health

Mental health students, who are still undergoing training, might find it challenging to visualise and fully understand what their patients experience. For this reason, the authors created a virtual reality simulator which mimics the symptoms of a person suffering from schizophrenia at a virtual workplace. The simulation is managed by an artificial intelligence system which asks the user to attempt simple tasks, while simultaneously facing both visual and auditory hallucinations. The AI also adapts the storyline and character behaviour dynamically to increase the immersiveness of the experience. A pilot study was carried out, and the initial results were very encouraging. In fact, the absolute majority of the users stated that the simulation has helped increase their understanding of schizophrenia. In this chapter, the authors evaluate this experiment but from a different perspective. They focus mainly on the use of emerging technologies such as AI and VR and discuss the ethical considerations of their use within the field of mental health.