Freedom day update.

I was told they had sky rocketed this year though. Again could be just anecdotal from a member of staff.

 

In the middle of the pandemic last year our referrals dropped massively. I'm sure they will go up as people struggle with going back to normality but to suggest as the previous poster has that they shot up may not be factually correct as that isn't what our service saw at all nor was it in a neighbouring IAPT service. We managed to cut down wait lists significantly because of it.

 

The other poster just gave you 2 links to suggest otherwise. Maybe at your clinic but I'm not sure that represents the whole of the uk from what I've read. And another reason why there were big calls for the government to give more funding to mental health.

 

What other poster? Not seen any links???

edit: he's on ignore, just spotted

I just said your statement may not be correct and went from real life experience, not some anecdotal evidence that has nothing to do with me.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society...h-referrals-double-in-england-after-lockdowns

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...-health-crisis-in-england-at-terrifying-level

 

Fair enough, I dont work in CAMHS so not my area. I have worked for 2 services that cater for about 1.5 to 2 million people though and neither of them saw spikes during the pandemic (not just a clinic as you put it).

 

Projection.

 

Do you have anything to qualify that opinion on mental health and suicide? As far as I can see there is no conclusive study on this subject, here or elsewhere but even if there was how could you fairly compare them? 130,000 deaths from covid in the UK Vs no notable increase in suicide rates between 2019 and 2020 and around 5000 total deaths from suicide. But, of course, that doesn't take into account suffering because of the restrictions, but how do you compare that to deaths and long covid? The answer is: you can't.

Maybe in the next few years some way more qualified scientists will produce a study that gives us some idea of the relationship but you really have no right to say which is a bigger threat to young people right now. Hell, people keep saying we don't know the long term effects of vaccines (we do, these vaccines were first developed for SARS and MERS 10 years ago)but actually, we have no idea of the long term health effects of covid exposure... Even in asymptomatic cases.

The effect of restrictions on mental health is a very serious issue, but it's worth noting that serious mental health issues are underlying and not caused by lockdown or restrictions, just brought to the surface by the disruption to normal life and routines. There's a big difference between being anxious and worried by the situation and suffering from severe anxiety and depression. Plus many of these mental health issues are caused not by lockdown but the untimely deaths of loved ones.

The bigger issue is the long term lack of funding and resources to dealing with people's mental health issues. Trying to get help for mental health issues has been an problem since around the 2009 recession when all the funding was cut to both NHS and community mental health support teams.

I also have no doubt there would be an increase in people seeking mental health help in lockdown when the option of 'drinking away your sorrows' in a pub every night was snatched away.. but that's not a symptom of a healthy society, it's a symptom of a broken one.

As for locking down kicking the can down the road... That is exactly the point of lockdowns. We were told clearly in early 2020 to expect vaccines by the start of 2021 (again it was about tailoring existing technology to Covid and running it through appropriate trials, not making a vaccine from scratch) so locking down and keeping numbers down until we could distribute effective vaccines was the point and most definitely would have saved more lives if we could have better protected our population from contracting covid in those earlier stages. This government holding off on lockdowns until numbers were skyrocketing caused excess deaths, an overwhelmed health service, and restrictions that ended up being in place far too long.

All the comparisons with different countries who did or didn't lock down is pointless. Australia was given as an example of a failure but we had one and a half times their total cases (in the entire pandemic) yesterday, and less than 1000 deaths total. But they are half the population of the UK in an area the size of Europe with a pre existing strict immigration policy.. so any comparison either way is like comparing apples and cheese.

We're a densely populated small island, so cutting social contact to stop spread was all we had in the earlier stages of the pandemic. The purpose being to buy time until we got vaccines, and spreading out the load on the NHS so they could save the most lives by stopping them being overwhelmed.

 

Right, if you look back at what I was saying is in fit and healthy people who aren't obese and who don't have any underlying health conditions suicide is a bigger threat as suicide is the biggest killer in males under 45. But your right to be conclusive we would have to find out how many fit and healthy people with no health concerns under the age 45 have died FROM covid 19. I doubt we will ever find these stats out and if we did they wouldn't be good for the rollout so would be kept under wraps.

You talk about the issue of mental health been underlying, in the 1st lockdown my grandma who is now 86 lost her husband of over 50 years the year before. She had to move in with my mum because sat in her home all day through the 1st lockdown she wouldn't have made it through IMHO and that's no exaggeration I genuinely don't think she would, I'm not saying all elderly people living alone are like that some are stronger than others some can handle time on there own better than others.

I cant comment on the rest as it wasn't me comparing lockdowns to other countries.

 

Sorry to hear about your Grandma. Hope she's doing better now.

 

Yes she is doing alot better, thanks mate.

 

I had massive mental health issues under lockdown. Thankfully a lot on here intervened, as did other friends.

It is important we treat the issue seriously & still try and avoiding passing this on to the vulnerable, that said we do need to get society up & running again.

Giving a proper pay rise to NHS staff & bringing back grants for trainee nurses would have a massive effect on us getting back to normal sometime soon.

 

You do realise that when you caveat the obese and those with underlying health conditions (like they don’t matter) you are literally spouting eugenics.

Your line is; if we ignore the deaths of the very old, the obese and those already ill then the virus isn’t a concern. Like those millions of people don’t count. It’s inhuman.

 

And this is how Logans Run comes into being.

 

Hope you're coping ok now mate.

 

Yes, thanks. I'm much better.

 

The fact that your personal tribulations lead you to wishing the best for others speaks volumes.
Much love and respect

 

Sorry if it came across like that wasn't supposed to obviously all lives count. I was just trying to bring awareness to the low risk people who are young and healthy have of covid been fatal to them (not that the unhealthy, overweight young people don't matter)

 

Just been in Morrisons, hardly anyone wearing a mask.

 

Obviously this