The impact of COVID-19 on individuals living with serious mental illness.

On March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) characterized COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, a global pandemic. As the number of COVID-19 cases increase exponentially in the U.S., there has been much effort on minimizing the spread of the disease via the implementation of social distancing practices, which can be stressful for everyone including individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression.