Police and specialist services in Manchester have dealt with a huge increase in calls about mental health, as the COVID-19 lockdown takes its toll.
Sir Richard Leese, who heads Manchester City Council and is also Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester, said the number of calls has doubled over the course of the pandemic.
He said the Government needed a new strategy to tackle outbreaks which “brings into play mental health and other health risks including those caused by poverty and economic inactivity, and one that allows the economy to fully function”.
‘I’ve become increasingly concerned that health ministers are looking at the health crisis purely through the narrow window of COVID-19, and not more broadly through the whole range of COVID-related issues that will now probably have a far greater impact on people’s life expectancy and wellbeing’
Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester
Leese’s comments come after Office for National Statistics showed that more than one in five people across the country has experienced some form of “depression” during the COVID-19 pandemic – almost double the rate of individuals who suffered from it before the lockdown.
Calls to three crisis helplines set up in Manchester in response to the pandemic have soared, with the Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation’s helpline receiving 2,168 calls in July compared with 1,187 in April, the Guardian reports.
Leese said very few people were dying of COVID-19 in the region, but “presentations of people with mental health issues … have soared, as has the number of people suffering from the state of the economy”.
In a blogpost he wrote: “I’ve become increasingly concerned that health ministers are looking at the health crisis purely through the narrow window of COVID-19, and not more broadly through the whole range of COVID-related issues that will now probably have a far greater impact on people’s life expectancy and wellbeing.
“We have to continue to take sensible measures particularly around hygiene and social distancing. We have to protect our citizens who are more vulnerable. We have to be ready for the potential of more deadly outbreaks as we head towards winter.
“However, with what we know now, we also need a new, more balanced and proportionate approach, one that brings into play mental health and other health risks including those caused by poverty and economic inactivity, and one that allows the economy to fully function.”
Greater Manchester has one of the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the UK and its 2.8 million residents have been subject to stricter restrictions than the rest of England since 31 July following an increase in cases.