IS MENTAL HEALTH THE NEW PANDEMIC?

摘要

Levels of loneliness, depression, harmful alcohol and drug use, self-harm and suicidal behaviour have been predicted to rise as a result of living through the Covid-19 pandemic, especially from the effect of quarantine on normal life (WHO, 2020). In fact, mental health in the UK was being affected early on into lockdown. As reported last issue, a survey in the very first week of lockdown saw 83% of young people in the UK with mental health problems saying the pandemic had made their mental health worse (YoungMinds, 2020a). And in the first weeks of the pandemic, one million people downloaded information from mental health charity Mind's website (Mind, 2020). An ongoing study by the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) in late April found that 34% of people in the UK were worried about losing their jobs, while 20% of unemployed people had experienced suicidal thoughts in the previous two weeks (MHF, 2020). The study of more than 4200 people was a collaboration between MHF, the University of Cambridge, Swansea University, the University of Strathclyde and Queen's University Belfast. Experts are now predicting at least half a million more people in the UK may experience mental health problems as a result of Covid-19, if the pandemic is followed by a recession on thescale of the 2008 financial crash (Durcan et al, 2020). If there is a second wave of Covid-19 and the economy is damaged further, this particular forecast from the charity Centre for Mental Health (CMH) predicts the effects on mental health will be greater - and last longer. Even with lockdown easing, there are worrying signs of an impending mental health crisis.