This story is part of a collaboration between Central Connecticut State University and University of Central Lancashire.
The impact of the coronavirus on mental health among both United States and United Kingdom residents has been similarly disruptive.
“It’s been a work in progress,” said Briggitte Brown, a clinical social worker in New Britain. “Because of the temperature of the country right now, it’s impeding on people getting [mental health] services.”
Some UK residents are also seeing major consequences caused by the spread of the virus.
“I know a lot of friends who can’t go home to their families so they’re stuck in a house, completely alone, completely isolated,” said Emily Thomas, a resident of Lancashire, England.
“With all of the various ways people’s lives are impacted by coronavirus, the one strand running through everyone’s experiences is that sort of lack of connection to other people and to their communities,” said Marwah El-Murad, project manager for higher education of the Mental Health Foundation in London.
While the U.S. and the UK are seeing similar uncertainties surrounding coronavirus, the cultural context of mental health in the two countries is different.
The U.S. does not have a universal healthcare system, so the majority of Americans access mental health resources through private means. While the National Health Service acts as a universal healthcare system for all in the UK, some residents say the service is the main reason for problems connected to mental health access.
“[Mental health] definitely is widely accepted and talked about [in the UK]. People always point you in the direction of resources, but there aren’t enough resources for people who need to access them,” Thomas said.
For Thomas, accessing mental health resources has not been easy.
“[Mental health resources] are absolutely terrible because I tried to access them last year. With the mental health services on my university’s campus, you’re allowed a maximum of four sessions for an entire year and that’s it,” she said.
It took Thomas a three-month wait period to process a private referral.
“Once they processed my referral, they put me on a nine-month waiting list to access treatment,” Thomas said. “I only had a certain number of days to respond to accept the treatment and I didn’t get the letter because it came to my apartment and I was at home so I missed that.”
She then had to undergo the one-year process all over again and is still waiting to access resources.
“There’s a lack of funding for it with the current government because we’ve got a conservative government at the moment and they’ve cut mental health funding,” Wales resident Julius Eastwood said.
Much of the challenges the U.S. and UK are facing stem from the differences in stigmas surrounding mental health in the two countries. Seeking help has become more accepted with time in the UK, according to El-Murad.
“I think that in terms of pop culture, we’re finding that we are moving in a very positive direction where it’s becoming more and more acceptable for celebrities and influencers to talk about their mental health candidly and openly,” El-Murad said.
“There are certain groups where that change isn’t necessarily happening as fast. For example, students around university age actually report some of the lowest levels of help-seeking in any age group. What that means is if they are experiencing any mental health problems, they are actually far less likely to talk about it to their peers or to seek support for that mental health problem, so there is still a long way to go,” she continued.
People seeking help during this time are encountering new mental health practices, particularly online counseling, or telehealth. With stay-at-home orders in place in both the U.S. and the UK, many mental health practices had no choice but to temporarily adjust their services to all-online.
“It’s easier. You don’t have to physically get to the location. You can be in your home and still see someone,” said Anthony Ng, regional medical director for Hartford HealthCare’s Behavioral Health Network.
Brown, the clinical social work, said telehealth can be beneficial for some of her clients, but while for others it can act as a roadblock in getting the help they need.
“The convenience of telehealth is actually the direction I believe we are going to end up staying with hopefully,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be full-time telehealth. Certain clients work well with telehealth and other clients do better with face-to-face.”
“I’ve had some older patients that were in like their 60s and 70s and they’re not tech-savvy at all, and with them I’ve found that they’ve just said ,‘you know what, I’ll go back to you after this whole thing passes,’” Brown continued.
See Also: Teletherapy is Safe But Can’t Replace In-Person Help for Some
Even with online services available, some UK residents are still struggling with the changes to society as a result of coronavirus.
Thomas attends university in Leeds, England, where she currently lives with her friends. Not being able to see her family during this time has been difficult for her.
“It has been quite upsetting not being able to see certain people,” Thomas said. “It’s very unclear about what’s happening, what you can access, what you can’t.”
Others are not feeling as distraught over the changes associated with coronavirus.
“For me, I love being at home,” Wales resident Julius Eastwood said. “I have way more time to do stuff that I actually care about.”
Eastwood attends school at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute in London, where he says most of his friends have been open about having a lack of energy and feeling unproductive.
“I see a lot of people talking about their mental health getting worse. I can imagine this being the case if your job is affected or financially,” Eastwood said.
For Michael Carlin, who lives in Derry, Northern Ireland, the changes associated with the spread of coronavirus are “almost 50/50 good and bad.”
“I feel like the virus has a much bigger impact on people who aren’t as mentally stable,” Carlin said. “I don’t think online resources are going to take you from being in the worst part of your life to then bringing you to be the best.”
In the U.S., mental health professionals see the current situation as a way to increase clientele because online sessions are convenient for all parties.
“I’ve seen an influx in new clients and even old clients that had to cancel because of work schedules or because of transportation issues,” Brown said.
“More people will be seeking help as a result of coronavirus,” Ng said. “People will start to question whether they did enough to help the pandemic.”
While many people are just trying to get through this difficult time, El-Murad says it is “really, really important that when all of this is over and life seemingly goes back to normal, that we consider the fact that people’s mental health might not have gone back to normal yet and we don’t know what normal will look like or if the normal we knew will ever come back.”