Woman wearing a face mask during the Covid-19 pandemic

The government’s missed mental health opportunity

According to a new report from the Centre for Mental Health, the way that the UK government responded to the mental health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to longer-term harm.

Through Covid-19 and the nation’s mental health: A review of the evidence published so far, the Centre for Mental Health reviews and analyses the available evidence on the way that the pandemic impacted mental health services. One of the main findings was that a ‘collective trauma’ was caused by the immediate impacts of isolation and bereavement, as well as longer-term trauma among healthcare workers. Alongside this, those who were already living with severe mental health illnesses were more likely to be hospitalised or die of Covid-19, with the first year of the pandemic alone bringing more than 42,000 deaths before the age of 75.

According to the report, this disparity mainly comes due to the wider inequalities that exist within this group, including higher levels of poor physical health, racial inequality, and widespread poverty.

Labelling the government’s response to the mental health impacts of the pandemic as ‘slow, sporadic and reactive,’ the report has also found that this meant that distress was exacerbated, with a need now for the government to learn from Covid-19 and include mental health in crisis preparations in the future. This will allow them to mitigate harm, and ensure that people with mental illness are protected from inequities that they were subjected to during the pandemic.

Mental health opportunity QUOTE

Chief Executive of the Centre for Mental Health, and co-author of the report, Andy Bell said:

“The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the nation’s mental health hard. A lack of government planning, and the absence of any strategy to mitigate harms, meant that both short-term and long-lasting mental health harms occurred that are still visible four years on. And it is truly shocking that people with a mental illness were so disproportionately affected by the virus itself, exacerbating existing health inequalities and widening the already vast life expectancy gap.

“We call on the Covid Public Inquiry and the UK Government to take the evidence we have amassed seriously and ensure that we learn the right lessons from the pandemic about its relationship with the nation’s mental health. Sidelining mental health yet again will leave us unprepared for future emergencies and their consequences. The people’s mental health deserves better.”

 

Image credit: iStock

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