Has the pandemic really caused a ‘tsunami’ of mental health problems?
How is the population of the UK coping with the continuing coronavirus crisis? According to some media reports and commentators in the mental health community, we are now facing “the greatest threat to mental health since the second world war” and a potential “tsunami” of psychological problems.
With a team of experts from the Universities of Sheffield, Ulster, Liverpool, UCL and Royal Holloway and Bedford College I have been monitoring the mental health of the UK population since the beginning of the crisis. Looking at our findings, we think that this tsunami narrative is misleading. If accepted uncritically, it could undermine efforts to protect the health of the population and also our ability as a nation to recover once the crisis is over. Here is why.
