With the onset of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the demand for psychological services in Russia increased by 89% in 2020 compared to 2019. This was reported to Izvestia by analysts from Avito Services. This also led to an increase in prices for such services by 14% in comparison with a year earlier.
Moscow and St. Petersburg are leading in requests for psychological assistance. Also, the demand for consultations of psychologists is growing rapidly in Siberia, the Urals and the Volga region, analysts said.
Compared to spring, the demand for psychologist services has jumped by almost a third (+ 32%), and compared to last fall – almost twice (+ 89%). Although the supply is also growing (+ 65% compared to last fall), the demand is quite higher than it: there are about eight requests from potential customers per ad, the company noted.
In this regard, the prices for the services of psychologists have increased. One session on average in the country began to cost 800 rubles, which is 14% more than in the spring or last year, analysts said.
“Several factors contribute to the growing interest in counseling: anxiety due to the pandemic, the inability to spend time in the usual way due to restrictions and overwork associated with remote work, as well as the feeling of loneliness among those who live alone and no longer walk to the office, ”explained Ivan Chulkov, head of marketing projects at Avito Services.
Along with the demand, the number of offers of psychological consultations is also growing. Most of the ads for psychological assistance appeared in May 2020 – 108% more than in the same period last year, he added.
On November 2, professor, head of the laboratory of social and economic psychology at the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Timofey Nestik said that post-traumatic syndrome after a coronavirus pandemic may appear in 30% of people.
According to him, the consequences of the pandemic will have a long-term effect. Thus, the growth of anxiety and depression in 2020 in Russia was 36%, and in the USA – 24.4%. The increase in anxiety disorders was 24 and 28.2%, respectively. Doctors and those who work in the “red zone” will be especially susceptible to negative effects.