Wales faces 'mental health crisis' due to Covid-19, says study
Wales faces a wave of mental health problems in the wake of Covid-19 - with younger adults, women and people from deprived areas suffering the most, according to a study.
Researchers at Swansea and Cardiff universities examined the pandemic's impact on the mental wellbeing of the Welsh population.
The initial findings reveal around half of the 13,000 participants showed clinically significant psychological distress, with around 20 per cent suffering severe effects.
Their responses were given during June and July, when the pandemic was seen to be having a dramatic effect on psychological wellbeing.
Professor Nicola Gray, from Swansea University, said: "We examined psychological wellbeing and the prevalence of clinically significant mental distress in a large sample 11 to 16 weeks into lockdown and compared this to population-based data collected pre-Covid-19.
"It showed a large decrease in wellbeing from pre-Covid-19 levels."
Prof Gray said the effects in Wales, and by implication those in the UK and beyond, are larger than previous studies had suggested.
"This probably reflects that the current data was taken deeper into the lockdown period than previous evaluations," she said.
"Public sector services need to prepare for this increase of mental health problems with an emphasis on younger adults, women, and in areas of greater deprivation."
The project was established to track the impact of the pandemic on people's wellbeing, examining the prevalence of significant levels of psychological distress and looking at the factors that might mitigate or aggravate that distress.
The 12,989 participants were recruited via social media and publicity and with support from large organisations across Wales who shared details of the bilingual survey widely.
The researchers are currently preparing to reopen the survey to collect more data from participants examining just how the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic continues to impacts daily life.
Professor Robert Snowden, from Cardiff University, added: "While we need science to fight the physical consequences of disease and reduce rates of infection, we also need to understand the consequences of actions such as lockdowns have on the mental health and wellbeing of people so that any treatment is not worse than the disease it aims to cure."