Peculiarities of Requests for Distance Psychological Assistance During the Period of Self-Isolation (COVID-19)

Abstract

The article presents the data on the nature of changes in public requests of the population for distance psychological assistance during the pandemia and self-isolation period (January to May 2020). The empirical material was the data of the Children’s Confidential Helpline of the FSBEI of Higher Education of the Moscow State University of Psychology & Education, which is connected to the unified all-Russian number of the Children’s Helpline 8-800-2000-122 and provides psychological assistance to teenagers and their parents (mainly living in Moscow). On the basis of the analysis of 17449 calls in January-May 2020, and comparison of the data for the similar periods in 2010-2019, it has been revealed that the quantity of requests increased in January by 38,02%, in February by 49,0%, in March by 43,06%, in April by 13,26%, in May by 14,56%. The increase in the number of calls is due to the information requests in connection with the pandemic and self-isolation, while the share of psychological consultations decreased from March to April. In some months, the structure of the content of psychological consultations has slightly changed towards the increase of proportion of consultations associated with child-parent conflicts, health problems, children’s social adaptation, antivitality feelings and suicidal behavior, as well as alcohol consumption and smoking. The number of requests from teenagers decreased in April and May 2020 by more than 50%. The data obtained may serve to assess the population’s need for psychological assistance in conditions of limitations associated with a pandemia, and may indicate a possible reduction in the availability of psychological assistance for children during a period of self-isolation.