UK government missed opportunities to support mental health during pandemic, report says

The UK government’s response to the mental health impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was “slow, sporadic and reactive”, according to a new report from the Centre for Mental Health, a think tank.

The report, entitled Covid-19 and the nation’s mental health: A review of the evidence published so far, reviews and analyses evidence about Covid’s impact on the UK’s mental health. It says that the pandemic caused a “collective trauma”, caused by the immediate effects of isolation, bereavement and fear. In the longer term, it says, health care workers experienced trauma from their work during the pandemic, while children and young developed psychological problems as a result of their disrupted education.

“Public health measures implemented to curb the spread of the virus, such as physical distancing and lockdowns, have also contributed to mental health concerns,” the report says. “These measures have resulted in social isolation, disruption of businesses, services, and education, and threats to individuals’ livelihoods.”

The report’s findings were based on an analysis of literature about Covid-19 produced since the start of the pandemic. It includes both academic studies and reports produced by mental health organisations.

People with severe mental illness were profoundly affected by the pandemic, the report finds. They were more likely to be hospitalised or die of Covid-19, with more than 42,000 deaths before the age of 75 among people with a severe mental illness in the first year of the pandemic alone. The report says that the disparity stems from wider inequalities among this group, including higher levels of poor physical health, racial inequity and poverty.

The effects of the pandemic on mental health are still emerging four years later, the report argues, with mental health referrals failing to return to pre-pandemic levels. It says that the Covid-19 inquiry must examine the mental health impact of the pandemic if it is to fully understand what happened and what we must learn for future national and international emergencies.

Covid-19 inquiry should hear evidence about mental health

The report finds that mental health services had to implement changes rapidly at the onset of the pandemic. These included switching to remote service provision, managing social distancing on wards and redeploying staff to other services. Rising levels of need since, however, have put enormous pressure on the NHS, leading to longer waiting lists for support.

The government must learn from Covid-19, the report’s authors argue, and include mental health in future crisis preparations to mitigate harm and protect people with mental illness from the inequities they experienced during the pandemic. The Covid public inquiry must include evidence about mental health in its work to ensure that essential lessons are learned and shared widely.

Andy Bell, chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health and co-author of the report, 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.

“In the wake of the Darzi review, today’s report is yet more evidence that the NHS requires system-wide change to meet rising levels of need following the pandemic.

“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.”