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How Has the Coronavirus Pandemic Impacted Our Mental Health?

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The mental health emergency How has the coronavirus pandemic impacted our mental health? June 2020 Contents Foreword .........................................................................................................................3 Executive summary ..........................................................................................................4 Introduction .......................................................................................................................6 Participant demographics ...............................................................................................7 Research findings: Section 1: How has coronavirus affected our mental health? ............................... 9 Section 2: What is driving poor mental health during the pandemic? ..................15 Section 3: How have people been coping? ...........................................................21 Section 4: Have people been able to access the support they need? ................ 28 Section 5: How have people being accessing mental health information? ......... 33 Mind’s work: how we’re making use of the findings ....................................................37 Next steps ......................................................................................................................38 Suggested citation: This is a mental health Mind (2020) The mental health emergency – we need emergency: how has the coronavirus your help right now. pandemic impacted our mental health? London: Mind. Available at: mind.org.uk The coronavirus pandemic is having a huge impact on our mental health. Help us be there for everyone who needs us at this crucial time. Click to make a donation today 2 The mental health emergency Foreword The coronavirus pandemic has caused As a Bangladeshi woman, I have experienced exceptionally challenging and worrying times the stigma that mental health issues carry for each and every one of us. The effects of within our South Asian communities. It is social distancing, lockdown, the loss of loved an immensely taboo subject, rarely spoken ones to the virus and the over-consumption of about and remaining very hidden. Black, Asian stress-inducing media reports is taking a huge and Minority Ethnicity communities have been toll on our mental health and wellbeing; and significantly and disproportionately affected by will continue to have lasting effects long after coronavirus and this will have an impact on lockdown is over. mental health. Understanding the specific I believe it is important for Mind to understand challenges and barriers that certain groups and keep the voices of people with lived are facing will allow the mental health toll experience at the centre of their practices, of the pandemic to be confronted. and welcome this work to understand the Now more than ever, it’s incredibly important to impact of the pandemic on people with mental consult people with lived experience of mental health problems. As things are changing so health problems and use our experiences to quickly, it can be difficult to know how best shape the work Mind does in the future. In to provide advice and support. By listening to particular, working openly alongside people our experiences, Mind can start to understand from diverse backgrounds and drawing upon how to support us. Whether it’s sharing our their experiences will allow Mind to explore experiences with policy makers, or using them structural inequalities of mental health with to develop their information resources, our action and accountability, to help drive further stories and opinions make their response awareness and provide more equal and stronger and ensure our voices are heard; inclusive mental health support for everyone. and by sharing the stories and experiences of others, it helps us to know that we are Habiba Khan not alone. Mind member and lived experience consultant The mental health emergency 3 Executive summary I’ve always struggled with my mental health. I’ve been getting better over the past few years, but I’m deteriorating so quickly right now. Survey participant, young person The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic will leave Pre-existing inequalities have been worsened a deep and lasting scar on the mental health by the pandemic, and this report highlights how of millions in this country. The devastating loss the pandemic’s effects on mental health have of life, the impact of lockdown and loneliness, been disproportionate. The following groups of and the inevitable recession that lies ahead people are more likely to report that their mental will affect all of us. health has declined: Prioritising mental health has never been more • Women critical than it is now. New mental health • People with disabilities problems have developed as a result of the Those living in social housing pandemic, and existing mental health problems • have gotten worse. • People with eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, or personality disorders To understand how we can best support people during this uncertain time, we carried out • Frontline workers. research to understand the experiences of Systemic racism has resulted in people from people with pre-existing mental health problems, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) the challenges that they are facing, the coping communities experiencing much higher strategies that they are using, and the support coronavirus death and infection rates.1 Whilst they would like to receive from us. We also our research did not find a significant difference wanted to enable people to learn from one in the overall rate of decline in mental health another by sharing their advice on how to for people from BAME communities in comparison cope during this difficult period. to White people, they did report that their mental More than 16,000 people have shared their health got worse. Mental health pressures – such as problems with housing, employment, experiences of mental health during the and finances – also had a bigger impact on pandemic as part of this research. More than this group. two thirds of adults with mental health problems reported that their mental health got worse Whilst this research shows that the mental during lockdown. As a direct consequence of health of some groups has declined at a faster the pandemic and all that follows, many people rate than others, we recognise that mental who were previously well will now develop health inequalities existed before the pandemic. mental health problems. For example, we know that people from BAME communities are more likely to experience a Supported by these findings, we are urging the UK and Welsh Governments to put mental health at the very centre of their recovery plans. As we look to the future, those in power 1. Office for National Statistics, Coronavirus (COVID-19) must make the right choices to rebuild services related deaths by ethnic group, England and Wales: and support, and to ensure that the society 2 March 2020 to 10 April 2020. Available at: https:// that comes after the pandemic is kinder, fairer www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/ birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/coronavirus and safer for everyone experiencing a mental relateddeathsbyethnicgroupenglandandwales/2march2020 health problem. to10april2020 4 The mental health emergency mental health problem in any given week.2 Although our research does not show that their Advice & support mental health has declined disproportionately, it is likely to now be even worse than that of Frontline workers other demographic groups. For more information about our work We have yet to reach the peak of the mental to support frontline workers, go to health crisis, and must continue to think long mentalhealthatwork.org.uk/ourfrontline/ term. The lasting effects of trauma and severe economic pressures will be keenly felt by millions – those working on the frontline, people Crucially, those surveyed reported that charity who haven’t had an opportunity to grieve, those information and hearing others’ stories is helpful who have spent months alone and lonely, young and supportive. People would benefit from people who had their support network taken advice on how to manage their specific mental away overnight. health problems during this time. Essential learnings • More than half of adults and over two month, with 18–24 year olds the most likely thirds of young people said that their to see loneliness affect their mental health. mental health has gotten worse during Many people do not feel entitled to the period of lockdown restrictions, from • seek help, and have difficulty accessing it early April to mid-May. when they do. 1 in 3 adults and more than • Restrictions on seeing people, being able 1 in 4 young people did not access support to go outside and worries about the health during lockdown because they did not of family and friends are the key factors think that they deserved support. driving poor mental health. Boredom is A quarter of adults and young people also a major problem for young people. • who tried to access support were unable • Loneliness has been a key contributor to to do so. Not feeling comfortable using poor mental health. Feelings of loneliness phone/video call technology has been one have made nearly two thirds of people’s of the main barriers to accessing support. mental health worse during the past Most common coping strategies • Over half of adults and young people • A third of young people with existing are over or under eating to cope. mental health problems are self-harming
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