People with existing mental health issues were distressed and there were new people developing acute anxiety and related mental health problems,” she says. Since the early summer, more people with mental health issues have presented with mental health emergencies. Mental health professionals believe the HSE must strike a balance between investing in mental health services in the community and hospitals. Dr Brian Osborne, a GP and director of the Irish College of General Practitioners’ mental health programme, says that GPs are seeing more people with mental health issues attending surgeries. Kelly says the economic situation can have delayed effects on mental health and that unemployment in particular can have a “corrosive” effect; an increase of 10 percentage points on the unemployment rate can have “spillover effects” on everyone’s mental health, even on the employed.

Source: The Irish Times October 24, 2020 05:00 UTC