Webinar: Priorities for mental health: the consequences of COVID-19

Clinical experts are talking of a ‘tsunami’ of mental ill health as the UK looks to recover from COVID-19; the challenge faced is not only stark for people who were living with mental ill health before the pandemic and who have struggled to access care, services and treatment, but for up to half a million additional people in the UK who are now estimated to have a mental illness.

The interplay between other health conditions and mental health is also more prominent than ever before.

All parts of society will have a role in helping to address this mental health challenge and health leaders and politicians will need to consider how health policy will need to adjust to deliver this.

To explore these issues, WA hosted a roundtable with an expert panel including:

• Caroline Gordon – Director and Head of Health at WA Communications
• Dean Russell MP – Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health
• Will Higham – Associate Director for Programme Innovation at Rethink Mental Illness
• Kathryn Scott – Director of Policy at the British Psychological Society

Amongst other topics, the roundtable meeting discussed:

• Immediate and longer-term priorities for mental health care
• Supporting mental health in patients with other existing health conditions
• How COVID-19 has impacted on the Long Term Plan ambitions for mental health
• Looking to the future – how does policy need to change to cope with the catch-up and future waves