The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health: what is the role of Primary Health Care?

Introduction: At times like the COVID-19 pandemic, there is evidence that mental health-related morbidity and mortality tends to overcome that directly related to infection, resulting from the pandemic itself and also from measures of social distance. Objective: To present a proposal for primary care teams in dealing with the population's mental health issues related to the pandemic. Methods: Reviewing the risk factors and stressors and recovering the attributes and potential of primary health care, an essay was written with proposals for the role of primary care. Results and Discussion: The main risk factors for mental distress include social vulnerability, contracting the disease or living with someone infected, existence of a previous mental disorder, being elderly or being a health professional. Social isolation and excessive and unreliable information are adding stressors to the crisis. The specifics of bereavement during the pandemic also increase the risk of complicated bereavement. In the Brazilian context, there is still the institutional political crisis increasing the population's anxiety. It is recommended that primary health care, with its characteristics and attributes, should: identify families at increased risk for mental illness; articulate intersectorally so that the demands of the most vulnerable are met; guide the population on how to minimize the factors that generate anxiety; support families to enable the grieving process. Conclusions: This essay intends to qualify the discussion about the role of PHC in attending to the population's mental health needs and, therefore, to subsidize actions that enhance the care provided by the teams during the COVID-19 pandemic.