Recent research shows that people have become comfortable talking about mental health and asking for help. This is an improvement from the past when people didn’t even talk about this topic. Issues like Covid-19, loneliness, worry, grief and financial issues are all factors that contribute to our mental health.
The study’s 44% finding is up from 23% on a similar 2007 study and suggests a decline in the mental health and wellbeing of young people has likely been accelerated by the pandemic, researchers said.
Research also shows that females tend to suffer worse mental health than males and females reported elevated psychological distress, self-harm, and suicide attempts far more than males.
A third (33%) of males reported distress, self-harm and attempting suicide. The COSMO study is the largest study of its kind into the impacts of the pandemic on young people. It was led jointly by university college of London (UCL) and the Sutton Trust and funded by the economic and social research council (ESRC) as part of the UK Research and innovation response to COVID-19.
It found higher levels of psychological distress were reported among those who have had long COVID or who have had to shield during the pandemic- with two thirds suffering from severe long COVID reporting high psychological distress.
As things are getting tougher again with the living costs, energy bills and financially, we at Letpads understand that it’s not easy being a student in the current climate. Uclan have provisions in place if you needed to talk to someone or needed help with other areas, please reach out.
There are also helplines available that you could talk to someone such as Samaritan, the light hearts UK, and NHS.
Please don’t suffer in silence, we at Letpads encourage all our students to talk, whether that be with us, student services or someone professional.