British Mental Health Institutions Have Faced Huge Shortages at the Peak of Covid-19

CW: mentions of suicide, self-harm & trauma

Covid-19 has had a profound impact on mental health (MH), yet there has been little focus on how this affects MH institutions, which can be seen as an intensified microcosm of society. If Covid has exacerbated MH issues in the outside world, what impact does it have on society’s most vulnerable? 

In addition, whilst, understandably, patient wellbeing has been negatively affected during the pandemic, it is also so important to shed light on the impact it has had on our key workers, more specifically mental health (MH) support workers. 

Unsurprisingly, clapping every Thursday at 8pm did not make up for the lack of support given to workers who dedicate their lives to supporting others.

THP’s Mental Health Correspondent Emily West spoke with Amber West, a MH support worker and Psychology graduate, about the impact of Covid on her patients’ and coworkers wellbeing:

[What’s been the biggest struggle you’ve faced throughout this process?]

‘’The biggest struggle [for patients] is not seeing people everyday; it was a comfort blanket for them[…] especially in the shared houses, there’s no one there to de-escalate arguments… tension was a lot higher. Having a presence there helps them feel grounded and safe. So to just have that taken away, that really did affect a lot of people.

My face to face hours went from 8 hours to 0 hours a day - it was replaced with phone support. A lot of them do still need support, but would rather have nothing than have it on the phone.

Hygiene became more of an issue as you have to stay as clean as you can to stop the spread. But a lot of them couldn’t shower as it was connected to their emotional issues or caused flashbacks for them. Trying to do something like that without a staff member present just became even more impossible.

Night cover got completely stopped… a lot of patients were losing sleep over that… being alone just isn't good for them. They need people around them that they trust.

They massively rely on seeing family as a support network. When that got taken away it was really difficult… They were literally locked inside… we’ve got people in flats who were completely isolated-they couldn’t even go outside for the first few months of lockdown.

We definitely saw a massive increase in self-harm and suicidal behaviours…it's also the same for the outside world. People rely on support networks or going to work or just being able to escape abusive home environments. So when you get stuck in your home, regardless of whether you’re in an institution or not, it can be really damaging’

Amber West

[How was it for you as an employee?]

One of the major stresses we had was that we didn’t feel comfortable working without the appropriate PPE. Any PPE we could get wasn’t enough to cover all staff members. We were told to source our own PPE… I scrolled through every single page on the internet trying to find some and there was nothing.

As staff we were getting really stressed because a lot of our clients are high risk. We were scared of bringing the virus into their home and putting their lives at risk.

We got money from the council for giving face to face support, and with a lot of this being replaced with phone support, we weren’t getting any of the funding[…] so they cut our pay, and our hours aswell.

The managers were working from home, so everyone was pretty much just left to their own devices[…]And it's hard when your clients are very stressed, but we don't have the answers to give them because we haven't been told anything either.

When Boris Johnson made his speeches, we didn’t get any emails about the changes and how it would affect the way that we work… We all co-signed an email and sent it, about what we thought should be happening and we just didn't even get reply.

As a staff group, we were all completely stressed. None of us knew what was going on.’

[Did you receive any new training about how to deal with the situation?]

‘No. Nothing.’