Mental health charities feel the strain as pleas for help soar
Loneliness, anxiety, feelings of isolation, grief over loss, and worry about loved-ones are the most common topics raised, writes
THE coronavirus pandemic is having a hugely detrimental effect on Ireland’s mental health as the country’s main charities report an increase in people seeking help during lockdown.
Loneliness, concerns that access to services could be restricted, increased feelings of isolation, worrying about loved-ones and grief over loss have all been raised with the mental health charities.
Aware says the organisation has had a “dramatic increase in demand” for its services with almost 28,000 people contacting its support line.
The organisation helped around 5,000 people online and recorded 730,000 views on its website.
“Since March 2020, we have noted an increasing volume of concerns relating to anxiety and worry due to the impacts of Covid-19. Our support line has seen an overall increase of 36pc since March with significant peaks in April, May and July of more than 80pc,” chief executive officer Dominic Layden says.
Aware receives 25pc of funding from the State, relying heavily on corporate and community support to generate the rest each year.
It is, though, a challenge that was “magnified tenfold by Covid-19” resulting in “immediate financial risks” from the cancellation of events.
For the Samaritans, faceto-face supports in branches have been postponed due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Niall Mulligan, the group’s executive director, revealed that volunteers have answered more than 300,000 calls and emails since restrictions began and have spent almost 60,000 hours on the phone.
“Our volunteers have been hearing from people feeling concerned about isolation, unemployment, mental health and illness among other issues. We have noticed that calls have been longer than usual, especially from those who are lonely and anxious about Covid-19,” he says.
Pieta House saw a 25pc increase in calls and texts during December 2020 by comparison to the same month in 2019 to its helpline number and crisis text line.
“We responded to all requests for support to help our clients, especially during Covid, to remember that we are here,” says funding and advocacy regional manager Tom McEvoy.
From April to November 2020, a total of 31,133 community mental health appointments, new or re-referred, were offered across the HSE.
It received more than 11,000 referrals and by last October had provided about 53,000 sessions to over 7,000 people.
A new “telehealth” option including online, text and phone therapeutic supports now form part of a digital mental-health initiative while more than 30,000 video-enabled consultations for mental health took place and will continue throughout this year.
Volunteers have also exchanged over one million text messages with people in need of emotional support last year.
But Sinn Féin spokesperson on mental health Mark Ward has claimed the Government “failed to deliver” on mental health provision.
Late last year, the Government announced its winter plan for health but “at no point did this plan refer to mental health despite the stakeholders warning that we are amid a mental health tsunami”, he says. “Funding for mental health as a percentage
‘Calls have been longer than usual from the lonely and anxious’
of the overall health budget has fallen from 16pc during the 1980s to 7pc in 2020 and further to 6pc in 2021.”
Mr Ward said during a national emergency “it is a scandal that the percentage allocated for mental health fell” and called on the Government to “roll out a comprehensive public mental health service”.
But Mary Butler, junior health minister with responsibility for mental health, says the Government has taken a “range of measures to address any potential rise in demand for mental health services” resulting from, and following the coronavirus pandemic.
“Some €2.2m has been provided for Healthy Ireland and HSE psychosocial responses to the pandemic,” she says.
“‘MyMind’ alone delivered nearly 10,000 free online counselling appointments in 2020.
“In addition, €7m has been provided for health and well-being supports, including the ‘Keep Well’ campaign.”
Ms Butler says the support in place allows “other mental health services to remain available for services users with more serious mental health difficulties”.
“It is likely, in the future, that telehealth and psychosocial supports will continue to form an important part of service provision,” she adds.
“To continue the development of mental health services, an extra €50m was provided for mental health in 2021 — €23m of this will support the implementation of short-term objectives under Sharing the Vision, the national mental health strategy.
“Of course, a negative mental health outcome for our population from this pandemic is not inevitable if we set about responding to the challenge in a cohesive manner.”