Calls To Mental Health Helplines Increased Early In The Pandemic

By Emily Reynolds From early 2020, concerns were raised about the impact of the pandemic on mental health. The stresses of lockdown, social isolation, financial precarity, and widespread grief were all considered to be potential triggers for poor mental health, along with issues such as increased domestic violence. A new study, published in Nature, looks at what helpline calls can reveal about mental health during this period. It finds an increase in calls to helplines during the early days of the pandemic, largely driven by fear, loneliness, and worries about physical health. Marius Brülhart from the University of Lausanne and colleagues used data from both general crisis lines and specific suicide prevention lines, as well as those focusing on children, parents, and immigrants. Data was collected from January 2019 to the most recent available date in order to cover the period before and during the pandemic, with 8 million calls from 19 countries included in the dataset. First, the team looked at call volumes, before zooming in on the conversational topics raised by callers. For each helpline, calls were categorised based on topic, including loneliness, fear, suicidality, addiction, violence, physical health, work situation, and relationships. Demographic data was collected here if possible, including marital status, living situation, and work situation. Government responses of helpline countries were also measured, including how stringent restrictions ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Coronavirus Mental health Source Type: blogs