Policy Brief | Covid Mental Health Impacts on Young People, Nursing Staff | NI Mental Health Waiting Times
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Covid Mental Health Impacts on Young People, Nursing Staff | NI Mental Health Waiting Times

Mental Health Rights  |  Wed Jan 27 2021

A Prince’s Trust survey of 16- to 25-year-olds in the UK found that one in four respondents reported having felt unable to cope with life during the pandemic.  Half said their mental health had worsened during this time, and over half said that they often or always felt anxious.

As NI endured what health care officials said was the toughest period so far of the pandemic, Royal College of Nursing said nurses here face a “tsunami of mental health issues” from Covid-19 and called for greater support for them. The NI Audit Office announced that its ongoing review of the scale of mental ill health here and the services to address it would be published in 2021.

A BBC NI investigation using Freedom of Information requests about compliance with NI Health and Social Care Board guidance found that one in five mental health patients at Emergency Departments here have to wait longer than the two hour target. Some people have waited up to eight hours to be seen, according to the findings.

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