Mental health crisis ‘soaring in pandemic’
Warning for employers as data shows grim impact one year after lockdown
THE CRISIS in mental health brought about by the coronavirus pandemic is set to compel businesses to make sweeping changes to help staff cope with the easing of the lockdown, it has been claimed.
Data seen by The Yorkshire Post shows that levels of mental distress among adults have soared during the pandemic, with younger women among the most acutely impacted.
Campaigners and MPs said that bosses of both public and private organisations are likely to come under increasing scrutiny as to how much support they provide their staff and to allow for more flexible working patterns as society opens up in the coming months.
As the UK prepares to mark 12 months since the first national lockdown was imposed, employment lawyer and mental-health campaigner Jodie Hill told this newspaper that employers could be laid open to discrimination charges if they do not adequately support their staff when they return to work.
She said: “The way we work is going to change. I don’t think we will go back to the whole nine to five and strictness of routine that we had because, if we do, ultimately people will either look elsewhere for jobs or their mental health will decline.
“There is a massive worry at the moment about how we support people coming back. But there are a lot of lessons. We have seen the benefits of flexible working and a more human approach.”
A White Paper drawn up by Ms Hill and seen by The Yorkshire Post showed that levels of mental distress in April of last year alone was 8.1 per cent higher than seen between 2017-19.
It claims that although the most severely impacted demographics have been single parents, women and people with long-term health conditions, it also showed 10 per cent of the population had suicidal thoughts at the peak of lockdown.
Shadow Mental Health Minister Rosena Allin-Khan said: “The mental-health impact of Covid-19 will be felt for many years to come and it must be addressed now.
“In our workplaces, schools and communities, the Government needs to address the fact that life isn’t yet back to normal and people need access to mental health support when they need it.”
The views are expressed in the same week it was revealed the UK has fallen five places to 18th on a global list ranking countries by happiness, with the mental health ramifications of the pandemic attributed for the decline.
Geoff Heyes, the head of policy at the mental-health charity Mind, said people’s psychological well-being needed to be a key area of focus for the Government when tackling the wider longterm social impacts of the pandemic.
The Unite union said there should be an individual risk assessment performed for each person and workplace.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson stressed the Government had provided the largest funding increase in the NHS’s history to transform mental-health services, with an additional £2.3bn a year by 2023/24.
A further £500m has been committed to address waiting times for mental-health services.