I know more people who've committed suicide than I do who've died of Covid

[BagsOFr]

4 people (not all friends but people I know from around my area) have now committed suicide, one being the brother of a friend. I know multiple more who've gone missing after a MH crisis and been found thankfully alive.

AIBU to think there HAS to have a massive overhaul of the MH services in this country after this shit show? This can't be allowed to go on silently. I know everyone is very focused on Covid and I appreciate why, but I don't know a single person who's died from Covid and yet here I am, seeing another person who's taken their own life because of this situation. It seems to be such a bigger issue than anyone wants to admit.

@inquietant

Surely both Covid and mental health services need to be the top of the agenda for this government?

Not to put too fine a point on it, this conservative government does not give a shit about these things. Many of them want to privatise and move to an insurance model. This may well be seen as an.opportunity to remodel aka destroy the NHS.

The idea that this government with this PM and this Chancellor would care about mental health is a joke.

The Chancellor is desperate to cut the £20/week UC uplift, it is only the less dreadful in his own party holding him back.

Well i hope the NHS does get remodelled. People forget how shite the admin side of it is. It's fucking horrific, especially for older people with no support, who have to chase appointments etc - have you ever tried to call a department in the NHS. It's a beaurocratically backwards disaster most of the time.

"The conservative government doesn't give a shit about things'. Do your homework. Labour underinvested and redirected funding for many years, not just the Torys. But don't let facts get in the way of your left wing bias, eh?

@AnnabelleMarx

Where I live the evidence is that suicide rates went down during lockdown (I’m overseas).

Where are you that the evidence is the opposite?

I’ve lost six friends to suicide since leaving medical school, one just a few days ago. It remains true that I’ve cared for more people who’ve died from covid in that time.

It’s not a competition.

I have not suggested it's a competition. I don't believe it is. In fact it's only when you dare to mention any other issue other than Covid that people start trying to make it into one.

Sadly know 4 ad well committed suicide

Know around 50 people who have had confirmed Covid e. No one had been to hospital. Most of the pwrents carried on working through it and home schooling

And I have also not suggested this is evidence based fact for my local area. I am talking about what I am personally seeing in the people I know and it concerns me. I'm not talking about studies and figures and statistics.

If past governments had invested properly in the NHS and the training of new staff, better wages for HCPs etc there would be enough facilities for everyone in need of them, even in a pandemic, and no bed crisis, and there would be no need for any lockdowns, businesses going under, people losing their livelihoods. The NHS is a wonderful creation but it has been badly let down over the years. Bevan must be turning in his grave.

I think studies into the numbers of suicides right now are sort of irrelevant at the moment

You need data to support any thesis, otherwise its just an anecdote.

It's truly terrible that you have lost so many friends and my heart goes out to you. You cannot compare the effects of covid on mental health without sufficient data though, to do so is irresponsible.

@BagsOFr

I'm not suggesting it hasn't happened, not at all.

I'm saying it seems MH crisis is such a huge issue right now that lots of people seem to be ignoring and not talking about.

I disagree. I think people are talking about the MH impacts of lockdown. Companies are telling their employees to check in. My work is making a massive push for Monday to get us all connect, as Monday is the day people are most likely to commit suicide. TV shows, radio shows they’re telling you it’s OK to not be OK. Emails have “take care” and “stay safe”, which doesn’t just mean in relation to Covid. The emails I reviewed after Christmas were mostly along the lines of we know this year is different but we hope had a restful break and focussed on your MH. Facebook posts telling people to reach out. I think we are talking about it because we know MH provision is lacking and was even before lockdown. Obviously since Covid, most NHS resources have now been diverted to fighting that.

I think it’s great that people are talking so openly about MH, people are reaching out, people are acknowledging that most people aren’t OK. I’m sad it took this for that to happen and when people need it the most, we don’t have the MH provisions for them.

It's not a pissing death match, the mental health services are chronically underfunded and were so before covid.

Goodness me, can you not share concern about anything that isn't Covid unless its a backed up thesis with figures and graphs.

It wouldn't surprise me if there are lots of people feeling this way because instead of focusing our energy where it should be, people are too focused on attacking each other for fucking everything.

I know people who are suffering but are literally too scared to see a friend because they are so worried about being 'spotted' or shamed or whatever. It's fucking ridiculous.

I think there will sadly be many suicides because people have lost the basic support they had before let alone any professional support.
I don't just think it's the health service though, funding education and early years support and support to parents could prevent many people developing mental health problems like personality disorder.
People say the conservatives have under funded health but let's face it, this hasn't just happened. No government has kept up with the proper management of the health services or funding health promotion etc so we are not obese and more susceptible to things like Covid.
Sorry to anyone who has lost someone to suicide, cancer, other health conditions or Covid.
The whole system needs an overhaul not just the NHS.

Numbers of suicides among the 3 million self employed excluded from covid support schemes also rising.

I disagree. I hear a lot about MH just lately. There’s adverts on the radio from the NHS stating that there’s help out there. I saw a surgery local to me advertising support to young people in the area. I get global messages from my employer about employee wellness and mental health. I see communication from companies referring to mental health. I think there is an increased awareness of it as a result of the pandemic. I have depression and anxiety and it’s been greatly affected by this pandemic and I’ve found I can get support when i needed it. My GP and employer have been amazing. These are exceptional times and everyone is under enormous strain. This is a very difficult situation we find ourselves in so if some services are affected then that’s to be understood.

Am so sorry for your losses. Of course there needs to be more mental health support. But I know six people who have died of Covid so far and three who are suffering badly from long Covid, so do think that has to be an immediate focus.

Until covid is under control there are precious few resources for much else.

Obviously it should never have gotten to this point at all but if people will insist on voting for this incompetent shower....

You might not know a single person who has died of Covid, count yourself lucky I know 5. Added to the 2 million world wide in less than a year, it's a deadly horrifying disease.

MH is a serious issue and funding needs to be explored but it doesn't need to be linked to your experience of Covid.

Unfortunately I know both.

There is a lot of mental health awareness and support but when you are actively suicidal that is where the system crashes.

There are around 6000 suicides in the uk each year with no evidence that the rate is increased during the pandemic , you are more likely to know 60 people who died of covid than 6 suicides. Dreadfully unlucky. Is poor mental health and poor mental health support another place where ther is huge inequality in our society?

I hope after this there is a real focus on the NHS and what it is intended to do. It costs so so much and is clearly struggling to cope in normal times let alone now. The MH fall out of this saga will be huge...even robust and strong people are struggling. A real critical eye over as to how health care is provided here needs to happen.

I've known three people in my entire life who have committed suicide (two when I was a child, one when in my thirties), and two who died last year because of covid, another two with long lasting health problems because of covid.

All are deeply regrettable and I agree the mental health services here in the UK need some serious overhauling - but that has been the case for years, they are pretty useless except when it comes to dishing out pills.

I do not understand the comparison.

I am however very sorry that the op has lost people she knows to suicide, it is a terrible blow.

You are correct - MH services need a radical overhaul and will need a huge amount of funding in the coming months and years.

Not just for the people who have suffered from lockdown, but for all the medical staff who will be suffering from PTSD as a result of being on the frontline of this horrendous situation. I have a friend whose son is a nurse in ICU - one of his colleagues is in care there, possibly dying, and he has many friends, including his own partner, who are on the NHS frontline as well and ALL feeling the strain of losing at least 1 in 4 of the patients they treat, to say nothing of the fear of them catching it themselves and potentially being unable to go home to their own families.

The people with extreme health anxiety who are crippled by the fear of catching covid and dying themselves, or causing their vulnerable family's deaths.

Those who don't cope well without social interaction, and who have no one to "bubble" with.

People with MH disorders already who are finding lockdown poses an extreme strain on their ability to cope.

SO MANY people are going to need help - and the service is critically underfunded as it is.

Do we think that this current govt gives a shiny shit and will help out?
Sorry, I don't believe they will.

I'm sad to say that like the OP the same sad situation.

It was probably not possible to respond to Covid 19 and not have impacts on mental health to some level. However, a prompt response in March, again in September and December, and clear messaging, would have meant the impacts would have been much less. Uncertainty creates mental health issues for many, there would have been fewer job losses, and many fewer people would have been bereaved.

In 2019 male suicide in the Uk was the highest for 2 decades.
8% of Covid deaths occur in those with no pre existing health conditions. Covid is essentially an age related illness. I don’t say that lightly as someone in my 60’s.
I think mental health issues will be huge in the coming year. My own dsis who has had bad mental health for many years is struggling terribly atm.

There are no easy answers but mental health services do need to be expanded imo.

If you’re not trying to deny that people are dying of COVID then why compare the number of suicides you’ve heard about to the number of COVID deaths? Why not compare the number of suicides to the number you’d heard of pre-COVID, if your thought is that the situation has increased numbers.

You’ve said that to get a reaction and it’s really distasteful. My family have been personally affected by a COVID death and comments like these undermine his death and the heartache it’s caused families who simply would not have lost their loved ones if it wasn’t for the virus.

Agree, I know 5 people who have committed suicide this year including an extremely close family member at Christmas. I'm not sure I will ever recover from their loss. I know roughly 70 people who have had covid. One hospitalised for a week due to her asthma. I know no one who has died of covid.

*last year sorry. Still stuck in 2020