We鈥檙e supporting calls for more research to be carried out into the mental health impact of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as campaigning to ensure counselling and psychotherapy plays a key role in the mental health response.

The calls were made by a group of leading academics, writing in The Lancet Psychiatry, who warned the on the population鈥檚 mental health 鈥渘ow and in the future.鈥�

Perfect storm

They鈥檝e described the virus as bringing a 鈥減erfect storm鈥� of problems that could lead to an increase in the rates of mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicide, drug use and relationship difficulties. They say children, adolescents and the elderly are particularly at risk.

The academics say policies used to manage the pandemic could impact mental health because of increases in unemployment, financial uncertainty and poverty. This echoes the points we made in our recent open letter to Governments across the UK.

We completely agree that more research is urgently required into the impact of Covid-19 on people鈥檚 mental health.

Understand the impact

Our Head of Research Dr Clare Symons said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 vital we fully understand the impact coronavirus has on mental health now and in the future so that appropriate support is offered to people affected.

鈥淲e know our members are already playing an important role in responding to this crisis and supporting vulnerable people.

"Conducting research to evaluate the effectiveness of counselling and psychotherapy is always something that we promote.

Robust research

"The Covid-19 鈥減erfect storm鈥� that the researchers mention presents unique challenges for people鈥檚 mental health. As such, it鈥檚 vital we push for robust research to be conducted that can evaluate the effectiveness of counselling and psychotherapy for addressing the specific problems that people might be experiencing, and might continue to experience, as a result of this crisis.鈥�

Impacted our members and clients

鈥淲e鈥檝e already launched a survey to understand more about how the pandemic has impacted our members and their clients.

"We also have an ongoing project that involves the use of an online system to support practitioners in monitoring their clients鈥� mental health and therapeutic progress. Given the emphasis of the call on the importance of monitoring mental health, this project has the potential to be particularly important during and after this crisis.鈥�

Collaborate

鈥淲e鈥檙e also actively discussing with researchers and our academic contacts to explore how we might collaborate on other research projects to better understand the impact of this pandemic on mental health.

鈥淲e鈥檒l continue to do everything we can to ensure that counselling and psychotherapy is at the forefront of the mental health response to coronavirus, through our research, lobbying and working with our members on the frontline.鈥�

More than 9,000 people have now signed our petition calling on the Government to maximise the role of counselling and psychotherapy in the mental health response to coronavirus.

Find out more about our research.