‘Pandemic’ of mental ill health cost UK £2bn
A ‘PARALLEL pandemic’ of mental ill health in the North has cost the country £2bn, according to a shocking new report.
Researchers have found that while mental health throughout England has been hit hard during the Covid-19 pandemic, the North both fared worse than elsewhere and has recovered more slowly. Now they’re calling for central Government to increase NHS and local authority funding for mental health provision in the North – and increase the funding allocated to deal with health inequalities.
Worrying figures show that the under-35s in the North were 2.5% more likely to develop a psychiatric illness during the crisis – while women from ethnic minority groups in our area have experienced the worst mental health of anyone in the country.
In response to the research – produced by the Northern Health Science Alliance and the northern National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaborations – senior NHS mental health leaders have warned “vital investment is needed” in mental health services in communities across the North.
The research considers the North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber as the North – with each region having seen shocking falls in health outcomes compared to the rest of the country. Other key findings of the report show that there was a 12% increase in antidepressants prescribed in the North – and that proportionally people in the North were prescribed more than those in the rest England.
The impact of mental ill health was also found to have hit non-white groups hardest.
The report’s authors laid out a series of recommendations highlighting the need for increased spending, better monitoring of mental health both in local areas and of children and parents.
Prof Clare Bambra, professor of public health at Newcastle University and one of the report’s co-authors, said: “These findings reiterate that the pandemic has been very unequal. People in our most deprived communities have suffered most, in terms of death rates, dying younger and in ongoing illhealth such as long Covid. These health inequalities reflect long-term inequalities in the social determinants of health, how we live, work and age.”
Hannah Davies, who leads on health inequalities at the NHSA and also coauthored the report, said: “Increased deprivation in the North of England has added to a decline in mental health over the course of the pandemic.
“To reverse these outcomes immediate action should be taken to provide funds to mental health suppliers proportionate to the need in those areas and measure to reduce deprivation – particularly as the cost-of-living crisis tightens its grip on the most vulnerable.”