Address quality of life for single households

Allow single households to meet some friends or family, if they have any as you need to remember that we do not all have family, both inside and outdoors, even in a limited capacity.   

This concession should be for single households in the first instance as current guidelines directly discriminate against solo households and it is, in effect, torture to impose solitary confinement on an entire sector of society.   The impact in this group on mental health and also on mental illness  - a distinction needs to be drawn between the two - is profound and you will need to inject massive funding into NHS mental health services - not the 3rd sector who deal with mild conditions - to address the developing mental illness pandemic.

This is urgent and should be done immediately - you should have followed New Zealand and done this from the outset.  We can only go forward, so make this change and do it now - it should be your highest priority and yes, it won't be popular amongst those non solo households who want to see their extended families and friends, but this must come later.  You must end our suffering, too many people have been left in total isolation and this should not have been allowed to happen.

You failed entirely to consider the needs of those who live alone and have placed some of us at huge risk of suicide.  Many of those living alone will have become seriously depressed/anxious and either experienced mental illness for the first time or a huge deterioration in existing illness.   And that's with no access to psychology as national policy was to pause it across Scotland.   All you put in place was funding for preserving the mental health of the well and the treatment of mild conditions by 3rd sector organisations and online cbt suited to mild conditions - none of which is suitable for the treatment of severe depression or other severe mental illnesses.  You slashed our services not added to them.  Listening services are not treatments and their hours have not been extended yet in any case.

Exercising alone is absolute torture surrounded by couples and families none of whom go back to 100% isolation.

Video or phone calling does not alleviate the isolation on any level.

For the anxious amongst us your constant tv ads mean that our anxiety is spiked regularly, if we try and distract ourselves with television. Your ads don't reach the people you need to, and no ad will, as they are a non-compliant minority who are not listening now and are simply not going to.  Everyone else already got the message the first time - it's not a hard one to understand.

My mental health has been decimated and short of a failed suicide attempt there is no access to treatment at the current time.  And that is after months of desperately trying to access services after an already lengthy illness. The Covid-19 mental health services policy has been to repeatedly downgrade urgent referrals to routine as routine referrals are not being processed.

If I cannot see friends in person I cannot continue living - it's as simple as that.

Why the contribution is important

This is important to protect deteriorating mental health, prevent unnecessary loss of lives by suicide, protect the future impact on the overstretched NHS mental health services and address the disproportionate sacrifice made by single households with the already catastrophic impact on their mental health.

Making mistakes is part of life, it's how you address them that is important.

by roobie on May 10, 2020 at 09:23AM

Current Rating

Average rating: 4.0
Based on: 6 votes

Comments

  • Posted by ScottishGovernment May 10, 2020 at 12:17

    Thank you for your idea.

    Support services can be found through Healthier Scotland’s Help and Support site: https://clearyourhead.scot/support. The website has phone numbers to call if you need to speak to someone.

  • Posted by roobie May 10, 2020 at 12:36

    Helplines are not treatment and the fact is that there is no current help for severe levels of mental illness. Even gps are unable to access treatment for their patients.

  • Posted by black54 May 10, 2020 at 19:36

    This post is obviously heart felt and is quite emotive for obvious reasons -I understand and empathise with it. It can be very hard for those who have not got these issues to comprehend, but I know for myself and for others that helplines, zoom parties and such like are not a great help for people with anxiety issues who are isolated and perhaps also introverted. I would find having to team up with someone in a similar isoalted category so that i can make a ''bubble'' almost impossible. I am in quite a strong frame of mind these days, but do worry that the complete isolation I have had for 9 weeks now will impact on me. I used to attend small group activities - well being group, singing, volunteering, and so on. Now they are all closed. I have had several online conversations via Fbook to support people who are struggling very badly to deal with the isolation. I do not have family myself but have a big bag of skills to get myself through this - a priority does need to be to do something about helping make well being bubbles, in my opinion

  • Posted by LeeLee33 May 10, 2020 at 21:37

    I agree with the ideas put forward by Roobie. A "buddy" system should have been allowed for those living on their own during lockdown, if they felt they needed it. That is one person would be allowed to meet one other person in the same situation for exercise. And they met up with no one else. Not allowed to go inside anywhere together, but at least have human contact with someone you can talk to a maximum of once a day.
    A lot of publicity has focused on helping families who are suffering the most. Why? They have each other in their households and can go out together. A lot will have gardens or places to sit outside. Stuck alone in a flat with no human contact there, and when you do venture out, must be so hard.
    Being signposted to listening services for those with severe mental illness is little help. There should still be URGENT psychological treatment available, in the most desperate cases as indicated in the experiences above.
    I have a friend in a similar situation who is suicidal. Yet NHS staff can access these treatments via video links? Rightly so, but PLEASE consider treating those whose mental illness is worsening during lockdown, and may lead to their deaths
    A lot of the funding has been pumped into services for those suffering anxiety due to the virus, put money into treating the most vulnerable, isolated, mentally ill members of society.
    I hope a revision can be made on both compassionate, and medical grounds in terms of containing the virus.

  • Posted by as1 May 11, 2020 at 19:53

    It should be a top priority to help those living alone to avoid complete isolation.
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