Maintaining mental health should be prioritised as essential in the same way as shopping at the supermarket

I think there could maybe be minimum criteria such as people should be enabled to have face to face social contact with at least 1 supportive friend or family member for essential mental health reasons, eg if they currently live alone. This should be considered essential in the same way as going to the supermarket and implemented urgently.

Why the contribution is important

The current situation is not sustainable for some people and having a destabilising impact on many people's mental health. If mental health is improved, people will have better immunity to viruses, more potential economic productivity, more motivation to stay on board with general lockdown measures and this will also help to relieve pressure on the NHS in future from potentially being overwhelmed with the number of people needing help for mental health difficulties and also related secondary physical illnesses and lowered immunity due to increased levels of poor self care and addictions.

by Rachel_T1502 on May 06, 2020 at 08:49AM

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Average rating: 4.9
Based on: 17 votes

Comments

  • Posted by Mags1 May 06, 2020 at 09:35

    I totally agree with Rachel's comment's. We have a mental health crisis simmering away behind the scenes here. I see months of treatment and progress made by a family member, deteriorating on a daily basis. The smallest change would make such a difference to getting recovery back on track. Treatment and improving poor mental health takes a team effort. Remove that team and things go back to square one.

  • Posted by L71 May 09, 2020 at 16:51

    As someone living alone & not comfortable with video calls etc I completely agree. I desperately need some social contact to help manage my mental health

  • Posted by roobie May 10, 2020 at 06:23

    The situation for those living alone needs to be the first issue urgently addressed by the government as they have failed entirely to consider the impact on our mental health. Isolation is also known to impact negatively on physical health. People of all ages live alone and 100% social isolation needs to be ended for this group of people.

    Instead of putting extra provision in place for the mentally ill, services were hugely reduced and this has led to huge suffering and huge risk for many people who desperately need support. There was extra funding for mental health for the masses who seek to preserve their mental health or deal with mild issues but absolutely nothing at all for mental illness and this is a huge oversight.

    The government needs to ensure that mental and physical health have financial parity in terms of funding mental health services are hugely underfunded.

  • Posted by roobie May 10, 2020 at 06:29

    New Zealand catered for solo households from March, the same needs to be introduced in Scotland before other measures.
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