The COVID-19 pandemic is an entity moving in momentum with various eruptions of human senses to directly or indirectly impact mental health. This chapter discusses the model of health beliefs, resilience in facing the challenges, stress, and depression, psychosocial support initiatives through therapy digitization. Detail the relevance of this issue to a health belief model that cannot be seen from the aspect of physical illness alone. Online therapy is mental health digitization that works to help communities experiencing stress. Through online therapy, efforts to help reduce and restore mental health problems caused by the pandemic are being made jointly between government agencies and NGOs. In addition, the ability to cope with new living norms will enable society to live life in a more balanced and prosperous emotional, mental, and physical state. In line with the current COVID-19 pandemic scenario, it is an emotional challenge to strengthen mental health therapy as one of the progressive and pragmatic alternatives in helping community members adapt to new norms of living better.
TopIntroduction
The COVID-19 virus pandemic spreading aggressively across the country on a macro level is physically infectious (Newbold, Finnoff, Thunström, Ashworth, & Shogren, 2020). However, if viewed with a deeper scope and micro-nature, the pandemic can also significantly impact human psychology from mental and emotional health (McAlonan et al., 2007). The existence of the coronavirus has caused depression, anxiety, stress, and restlessness in the whole world (Di Renzo et al., 2020; Kumar & Nayar, 2021; Makhbul & Rawshdeh, 2021). In such a critical situation, society began to experience psychological impacts, such as depression, nervousness, anxiety, difficulty sleeping and stress (Giusti et al., 2020). It is even possible to feel like living in an insecure state, paranoid about the surroundings, traumatized, and becoming incoherent. No less is the feeling of pounding, sweating, losing focus, and constantly feeling threatened by the unseen virus. The condition is somewhat parallel to the symptoms in mental health symptoms. The presence of extreme anxiety and panic effects were directly or indirectly due to the occurrence of a threat from an event, tragedy, or disease outbreak (P. H. Huang, 2020; Stogner, Miller, & McLean, 2020). Such characteristics are included in the scenario of mental health problems. If not controlled, it can lead to more chronic conditions that can negatively affect individuals' emotions, minds, and behavior over a long period (Gross & Muñoz, 1995; Li, Wang, Xue, Zhao, & Zhu, 2020; Redzuan, 2001). The phenomenon may occur to communities that have or are going through the Movement Control Order (MCO) phase, and the Curfew Order phase that began in January 2020 in almost most countries in the world, following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak (Muhamad Khair, Lee, & Mokhtar, 2021).