The Importance of Mental Health Training for Psychologists in COVID-19 Outbreak

In early December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was identified including the symptoms of pneumonia of unknown origin in Wuhan, the capital city of Hui Province, China (1), and it is now widespread in many countries around the world. In addition to a high rate of mortality, the disease has caused severe anxiety and psychological problems in the communities involved (2). The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently declared the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak a public health (3). In such a situation, training mental health professionals should be widely considered. It has been revealed that half of the Iranian population has a limited health literacy, which is more common in vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, housewives, unemployed people, and those with lower education levels (4). Mental health literacy is an important factor in determining health, by which both individual and community health can be promoted (5).