I’m worried about the mental health of the nation due to covid restrictions

[Maplebeth]

This applies from those to children to those in their early 20s.

My niece and nephew both graduated from University in the summer and have started new jobs remotely. They are obviously very thankful that they have been able to find work, but both are seriously struggling with depression, loneliness and aniexty due to not being able to meet co workers and feel like they cannot fully get to grips with their new roles. Learning from more experienced co workers is critical and this cannot be done remotely.

My children are both young and I worry about the effect this has on their education and their overall well being. I did work experience in schools (which led me to realise teacher training wasn’t for me) and the teachers with whom I spoke told me that children will just easily forget the information if they aren’t always being told and listening (for example when the kids go off for the summer holidays, they come back and struggle with what they were doing in class). My husband and I are both key workers, however I am able to work remotely so am trying to homeschool them but am struggling very much. My children are so devastated and miss their nana cousins school friends and auntie and uncles so much. I don’t know if I made the right decision not taking a key worker place. My husband is a police officer and members of the public are being increasingly hostile towards him and his colleagues for trying to do their jobs to protect the community and keep the public safe (and no they aren’t giving women with coffees fines).

I am normally a very positive, optimistic person but I am struggling to see how long this can go on for without some very damaging consequences to the mental health of our nation. We live up North and have been in covid restrictions for a very long time.

Over the last couple of weeks, a lot of people seem to be quite low and down but also I’ve found strangers can be smiley and chatty if you’re out for a walk and you make small efforts to connect.

I think mh issues are affecting all people across the income spectrum and especially the disabled, kids, young adults and any poor sods who have lost or are at risk of losing their jobs.

My concern is how the debt we have incurred will play out along with economic problems, reconfiguration of industries, Brexit, the pounding of the NHS, school and uni students falling behind, underfunding of Health & Social Care and the justice system and so on ...

We have a great cultural spirit in this country - music, literature, theatre, protest - I hope we can see people come together creatively to soften the blow.

I do think once all this is over we shall inhabit a very different world - we have to now.

I live on a council estate and it feels like a knife edge out there. Constant police chases, and raised voices etc. It has never been a lively estate, but it most certainly is now.

It must be really tough for a lot of people in cramped estates who've been cooped up for a year. I can imagine many will be ticking time bombs. Many more months of this won't be sustainable sociologically.

@Wildswim

It's a really unnatural way to exist. It's a ticking time bomb. There will be massive repercussions from this which will last generations.

It grieves me how easily our children's education has been scrapped, how their future has been so casually destroyed. They will be the longterm losers out of all of this. They've been thrown under the bus.

Me too

Yes! My Mum worked in a pit town secondary in the 80s - she went back to see some kids and their families years later and many of the boys she taught were on smack - their Dads, Grandads, Uncles had all worked in mining and fuck-all remained - those industries went but nothing decent replaced it - those were shit times - my Dad was in and out of work and detested Thatcher with a vengeance.

@User133847

Agreed. I feel on edge living here, and this is all very recent. The poverty, stress and social issues are hugely amplified right now. I’m lucky I can close my door, but I do not feel safe now when I step out onto the street. The reckless behaviour is increasing day by day. My car was a complete write off a few weeks back after a drug driver smashed into it.

This estate was alright to live on last year.

Ticking time bombs indeed.

Dc education hasn't been causally scrapped 🤔.... Any school who doesn't do enough can be reported to ofsted.

I would be more worried about the mental health of the nation without the COVID restrictions.
Imagine the damage to the economy, jobs, education, NHS, families if we let the virus run loose. The toll from illness, long term disability and deaths would be catastrophic.

@OwlWearingGlasses I agree with the PP who said that children’s education has been scrapped and their future destroyed. The gulf will be huge between kids whose parents can and will engage with home-schooling and those who can’t or won’t. Some children have books and tech but many don’t.

The U.K. used to pledge to children a system which would educate and protect them regardless of their home circumstances. It wasn’t perfect but it made an effort to keep kids visible and aiming for a future. In this last year, children’s rights and education have regressed by decades. We have returned to a time when if parents could provide schooling then a child got it, and if not then they didn’t.

@owl apologies , I meant to tag @LickEmbysmiling

I don't like seeing the phrase "our children have been sacrificed". A poster already used it on this thread. What's the alternative? Teachers are adults with the potential to become seriously ill from Covid, they may also live with elderly relatives, or ECV. Don't they deserve to be safe? Anyone who says "our children have been sacrificed" forgets that children need hospital beds too. Children need an ambulance service in the event of an accident. Many children are emotionally close to their grandparents. They might have an ECV parent.
Yes, the whole situation is terrible. Like nothing we could have dreamed. But banging on about getting children back to school doesn't help.
For all the children missing school and their friends, there are lots who love not going. My nephew is one. He's doing really well because he prefers self-study and researching things in a quiet environment.

Amongst the people I know, a few are really struggling, but tbh, they were mostly struggling quite a lot with life before covid as well. Most people seem to be pretty resilient, and are coping well with the situation despite finding it tough. A few people seem to be thriving on lockdown.

I do think we need to get better mental health support in place for people as a matter of priority, but I thought that before the pandemic as well. As a nation, our mental health has been in a very poor state for quite some time, and this hasn't equipped us well to cope with the current situation. It's an area that needs huge investment, in terms of better education around staying mentally healthy and better support for people who are unwell.

I don't think mental health support alone is an answer. You can't lock people in their houses for a year and take away their support network, livelihoods, education, interests and future and then patch it up with anti-depressants or therapy over zoom. That particularly applies to children.

And you might not know if family and friends are struggling. I put on quite a brave face for friends and family most of the time because there's nothing much they can do for me from a distance and they have their own issues but I have struggled a lot this year, probably to the point of it being depressing though I haven't bothered to get a diagnosis.

I also have a friend who seemed fine over zoom who suddenly broke down and is now under psychiatric care. I have another friend who rang me in tears last week unable to cope when they had seemed to be coping well.

You don't necessarily know what is going on with people when you don't see them and a lot of people retreat into themselves when they are depressed.

I think the government's messaging is really dangerous in this respect. There are exemptions in coronavirus legislation for people to leave home when they have a reasonable excuse including to support someone in need yet the "stay at home" / "don't kill your granny" message is repeated over and over despite it having done so much damage in putting people off seeking support or treatment in the first lockdown. You see threads on here where someone has a family member who clearly needs in person support, sometimes even at risk of harming themselves, and still people are reluctant to go to them.

As for children, I think what we have done to them is cruel and inhumane and we may not know the damage done until it is too late. Apart from anything else, the explicit and implicit messaging which they are being exposed to is awful - that their education doesn't matter, sport and hobbies don't matter, that they don't need friends; that people are dangerous and they should keep away from them; that they are contaminated and a risk to others and so on. We have no idea what the long term effects will be, even for children who seem to be managing ok - they are victims of a real-life experiment.

We’ll put @Chessie678

@Chessie678 Very well put, particularly your last paragraph.

I have similar aged children. I’m not worried about their education. Children who start school at 7 have better outcomes. Focus on learning through play and making the home as relaxed (as possible). Early on we were ticking off the work but in a very stressed environment. We have taken a bit of the pressure of school work, encouraging free play, crafts, reading games. Much better for young minds in my experience. And lots of time outdoors!

I don't think mental health support alone is an answer. You can't lock people in their houses for a year and take away their support network, livelihoods, education, interests and future and then patch it up with anti-depressants or therapy over zoom. That particularly applies to children.

Abso-fucking-lutely.

We are being made to live in the most unnatural way and the consequences of that will be profound and long lasting.

I want my children to have healthy parents and a functioning nhs. Sadly without these measures we might not have those things.

I want my children to have healthy parents

Statistically, that’s very likely regardless

and a functioning nhs

This needs to be put into the context of how functioning it was prior to this (not brilliant) and how functioning it will be when the economic impact of lockdowns take their toil on its funding (catastrophic).

Children who start school at 7 have better outcomes.

Children who start at 7 in other countries have had many years of high quality pre-school education under their belt by this stage. They are not stuck at home, with frazzled working parents and no access to their peers.

The situation is not remotely comparable.

@Sunsetsaddict80 the NHS was shocking before this pandemic. My father died of pancreatic cancer aged 47 after being let down by the NHS time and time again, scans not being done when the scan was finally done, they reported a scan as clear when it was not. Sent home from A and E with paracetamol when had a bowel blockage. Left in a corridor for hours after being taken in ambulance when his gallbladder ruptured, and ended up discharging himself and going to a different hospital because of he’d stayed in our local one there is no doubt he would have died that day of sepsis. When admitted, and was in pain, he could never get medication quickly as there were not enough nurses or they would forget to provide the medication as they were so busy.

A friend of my dad lost his leg because he had deep vein thrombosis and this was missed and he was sent home again by A and E with painkillers. It become so severe that it had to be amputated. Wouldn’t have happened if NHS were competent.

I’ve seen several instances in the news where women are getting diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer because their smears were cancelled due to covid restrictions.

Vulnerable sick people who have other illness are contracting covid in hospital and dying. That is not the fault of the general public that the NHS has poor infection control measures. My friends auntie went in with chest infection and came out with covid and severe pneumonia and nearly died. Our hospitals have never been safe in my opinion.

The NHS has been like this for years, and other services will become even more strained as a result of these restrictions.

@Sunsetsaddict80 how do you suggest we recreate that environment for children at home whilst also trying to work full time for home?

My dc school are providing good remote education given trh circumstances. Doesn't mean my 11 yr old is getting a good education. He's stuck in his room all day with bits of zoom lessons then left to do work himself. We're both working full time and don't have much time to help him. He misses his friends, he's become almost agoraphobic.

Any child who prefers education like this can do this in normal times. They can home educate and work on their own. Most need contact from other children.

Totally agree with the poster that said mental health support isn’t really the answer. Some tablets and a zoom therapy meeting isn’t going to cut it. I think that form of therapy would make me feel so much worse.

The only real thing people can do for their MH at the minute is to try and keep active and get some fresh air, that’s about as good as it’s going to get. That’s assuming people can even get out of their house and leave their responsibilities (kids, wfh).

I don't think mental health support alone is an answer. You can't lock people in their houses for a year and take away their support network, livelihoods, education, interests and future and then patch it up with anti-depressants or therapy over zoom. That particularly applies to children.

Absolutely

I really want to hug another adult. I'm not even much of a hugger in normal times. I can't bubble because I'm still living with stbxh, but obviously not hugging him. And the depressing reality hit me this week that I'm not sure I have anyone local to bubble with.. All my friends are happily married, or have reasons to not want extra contact, such as CEV family, anxiety. And maybe I've realised I'm not that likeable, not enough to want to support.

I dunno. It's all shit. I can't even face getting out of bed today.

@MotherForker

That sounds tough 💐