7 ways COVID improved attitudes to mental health

The pan­dem­ic has rav­aged the world, test­ing the health­care sec­tor to its lim­its. As well as the phys­i­cal toll, there has been a men­tal health reck­on­ing. Per­haps the sil­ver lin­ing of long months of lock­down and social dis­tanc­ing is that men­tal health aware­ness has become upper­most among the pub­lic and politi­cians. From great tur­moil has come some pos­i­tive change towards men­tal health. Here’s how the con­ver­sa­tion has shift­ed.

1. Conversations around mental illness have been normalised

There was a time that talk­ing about your men­tal or emo­tion­al state was taboo. But COVID-19 has changed the con­ver­sa­tion, with more adults will­ing to admit when they’re not cop­ing. “We’ve also seen a lot of talk around reach­ing out to helplines and dis­cus­sions around feel­ing low and lone­ly, and reach­ing out to peo­ple. All these are quite pos­i­tive shifts,” says Dr Anto­nis Kousoulis, direc­tor for Eng­land and Wales at the Men­tal Health Foun­da­tion. While the head­line fig­ures – one in five UK adults were like­ly to be expe­ri­enc­ing some form of depres­sion dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, com­pared to one in ten before – are wor­ry­ing, the fact that peo­ple are will­ing to say they’re strug­gling is a mam­moth step for­ward.

2. We’re talking more to friends and family

The so-called Blitz spir­it is often invoked when talk­ing about com­ing through hard­ship, but crises can unite pop­u­la­tions and com­mu­ni­ties. Mutu­al aid groups, set up on social media sites dur­ing the ear­ly stages of lock­down, were osten­si­bly about ensur­ing the vul­ner­a­ble were able to receive food and care. How­ev­er, they extend­ed to com­mu­ni­ty-based sup­port groups that showed an increase in empa­thy with­in neigh­bour­hoods. Know­ing there are oth­ers out there, will­ing to lend a hand when need­ed, can improve people’s men­tal or emo­tion­al state at a time of great uncer­tain­ty. “What we’ve seen is peo­ple com­ing togeth­er, sup­port­ing each oth­er through dig­i­tal means and remote calls,” says Kousoulis. “We shouldn’t lose that moti­va­tion to con­nect with each oth­er and sup­port each oth­er.”

3. Remote access to mental health is easier than ever

Though there’s lit­tle sub­sti­tute for in-per­son treat­ment for those liv­ing with a men­tal health prob­lem, the need for social dis­tanc­ing has meant health ser­vices have devel­oped remote access to treat­ment, cru­cial for those peo­ple final­ly admit­ting to not cop­ing. Many peo­ple are fear­ful about vis­it­ing a psy­chol­o­gist in per­son, but can instead book appoint­ments and speak to experts from the com­fort and famil­iar sur­round­ings of their own home. Remov­ing the bar­ri­ers to entry to treat­ment for those who believe they may be suf­fer­ing from a men­tal ill­ness can help them seek out help when it’s most need­ed.

4. More immediate help is provided through digital means

As we spend more time on our devices, we’re turn­ing to apps for every part of our lives, includ­ing fos­ter­ing a pos­i­tive sense of well­be­ing. That’s vital as four in five peo­ple in the UK are wor­ried about the effect coro­n­avirus is hav­ing on their life, near­ly half report­ing high lev­els of anx­i­ety. Apps such as Calm, which offers guid­ed med­i­ta­tion pro­grammes that users can fol­low to improve their men­tal health aware­ness, can keep min­i­mal men­tal health issues under con­trol. Be Mind­ful, anoth­er app, pro­vides an NHS-approved ten-step course of thir­ty-minute long mind­ful­ness ses­sions. Yet these apps aren’t a sil­ver bul­let, warns Kousoulis. “I’m a lit­tle bit in two minds around the trends in dig­i­tal men­tal health,” he says. “In some terms the rise of apps is a pos­i­tive trend, but most of these apps don’t have a real evi­dence base behind them. Apps work best if they’re guid­ed. We call that a blend­ed mod­el; you’re doing a bit on your own and a bit with oth­ers.”

5. We’re recognising the need to treat the cause, not the problem

Men­tal ill­ness is now being seen as some­thing that should be addressed at its root cause, rather than wait­ing for it to man­i­fest itself to the point when liv­ing with a men­tal health prob­lem becomes dif­fi­cult. As with phys­i­cal health, ear­ly inter­ven­tion is key to nip­ping a prob­lem in the bud before it becomes unman­age­able. “Peo­ple talk about a men­tal­ly healthy UK on the back of COVID-19, but we can’t achieve a men­tal­ly health­i­er nation if we’re only focus­ing on the sharp end of the stick, peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing cri­sis,” cau­tions Kousoulis. “We need to be think­ing about men­tal health in the spaces and the set­tings we spend most of our time in.”

6. Employers are taking more of an interest

Anx­i­ety about return­ing to the office and fears of being dis­con­nect­ed while work­ing remote­ly are all tak­ing their toll. Unmind, a men­tal health organ­i­sa­tion, says eight in ten busi­ness­es record­ed an increase in staff requests for men­tal health pro­vi­sions dur­ing the lock­down. “We have cer­tain­ly seen many com­pa­nies in the com­mer­cial and not-for-prof­it sec­tor, and the civ­il ser­vice, embrac­ing that new real­i­ty and offer­ing flex­i­bil­i­ties to their staff, acknowl­edg­ing the chal­lenge of hav­ing chil­dren in the house or a house­mate,” says Kousoulis. The rise in aware­ness by employ­ers echoes sim­i­lar shifts towards pub­lic men­tal health aware­ness. The Men­tal Health Foun­da­tion has run Men­tal Health Aware­ness Week every May since 2001. In the midst of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, it saw its most suc­cess­ful week to date. “I’m not sure COVID played a huge role in that,” Kousoulis con­cedes, “but maybe it shift­ed the con­ver­sa­tion. We hear a lot of dis­cus­sions around kind­ness and com­pas­sion and being kind to your­self.”

7. Governments are taking action too

Indi­vid­u­als’ reac­tions and com­mu­ni­ty sup­port can help when it comes to men­tal health aware­ness, but liv­ing with a men­tal health prob­lem often needs gov­ern­men­tal sup­port. Around the world, gov­ern­ments are recog­nis­ing they need to offer sup­port and guid­ance on how to man­age people’s men­tal or emo­tion­al state. In April, the UK gov­ern­ment launched its Every Mind Mat­ters cam­paign, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Duke and Duchess of Cam­bridge, encour­ag­ing peo­ple to look after their men­tal and phys­i­cal well­be­ing. But cen­tral gov­ern­ments are far from the only ones advis­ing peo­ple how to look after them­selves. Local gov­ern­ment is pro­vid­ing sup­port, post­ing infor­ma­tion online and mail­ing out leaflets that help peo­ple man­age their men­tal health more pos­i­tive­ly dur­ing these try­ing times.