The impact of Covid-19

As the UK continues to emerge from the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is becoming increasingly clear that the scars of that experience run deep. 

Data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in May 2021 revealed that more than one in five adults experienced some form of depression in early 2021, a figure that has more than doubled since the Covid-19 crisis was declared a global pandemic. Yet GP diagnoses for depression fell by nearly a third in the first six months of the pandemic, according to separate ONS data.

Depression appears to have been more common in certain groups:

• Younger adults and women
• People living with a child or children under 16 years
• Disabled and clinically extremely vulnerable patients
• Individuals who rent rather than own their home
• Certain ethnic minorities
• Anyone living alone
• Those who live in the most deprived areas of England.

A significant number of young people feel their mental health has deteriorated during the Covid-19 pandemic and this deterioration will continue to have a long-term negative impact, according to work carried out by the charity Young Minds.