Lockdown and Mental Health

So here we go again: another national lockdown with all the disruption and difficulties that entails. But with such stark figures emerging from the NHS, 1041 more deaths recorded yesterday and 30,000 people now in hospital, it seems that we have little choice if we are to finally get control of this terrible virus. Yet on social media and elsewhere, there appears to be no shortage of so called ‘Covid deniers’, people who seem to think that the whole thing is some sort of hoax or, at the very least, nowhere near as serious as the Government would have us believe. I was interested to see that yesterday, during the parliamentary debate, 16 MPs voted against the latest measures. Why on earth would they choose to vote in that way when it seems abundantly clear that lockdown will result in actual lives saved?

Sammy Wilson, MP for East Antrim, accused the Government of responding to the “Pied Piper advisers in SAGE and their mournful dirge of fear and terror” while another, Sir Graham Brady, seemed vexed by the fact that playing golf is no longer allowed.

One MP did catch my attention in a more positive way. For many years, Sir Charles Walker has been a prominent mental health campaigner. In an impassioned speech, he made clear that his concern is for the millions of people around the country whose mental health has already been severely affected by previous lockdowns and who will find another one over the winter months especially hard to endure. This morning as I enjoyed an extra hour in bed and considered some of the more positive aspects of lockdown, his words came as something of a stinging rebuke to me...

“I do not want to hear from another constituent who is having a good lockdown. I am really pleased that they are, but my voice is for those who are not: for those of my friends, neighbours and constituents who are struggling day in, day out, whose mental health is not in a healthy state, but has deteriorated, and who are wondering how, in the next few months, in the middle of winter, they will cope.”

We have talked a lot in recent years about parity between mental health and physical health but as Sir Charles also pointed out, right now it seems that there is no parity at all and, indeed, mental health considerations have largely been relegated to where they were “perhaps a decade ago”.

So, as we begin another lockdown in our comfortable homes, let us at least take time to consider those for whom the next few months will be extremely difficult. Perhaps worried about the future or their livelihoods, separated from family and others that they may rely on for support or just feeling isolated and forgotten. For all the terrible physical toll that Covid-19 has taken, the impact on our mental health must not be underestimated and not just now, but in all likelihood for many years to come.   

Nick Forsyth

Head of Wellbeing