Coronavirus impacts NHS mental health services in the East Riding
More people including some not previously known to the NHS have come forward with serious mental health conditions during the coronavirus pandemic, East Riding councillors have heard.
More people including some not previously known to the NHS have come forward with serious mental health conditions during the coronavirus pandemic, East Riding councillors have heard.
East Riding Council’s Health, Care and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny meeting heard overall demand rose particularly among children and young people from late October including for eating disorders.
They also heard services including autism diagnosis had also been impacted by school closures and coronavirus generally, with waiting times forecast to grow.
Lynn Parkinson, of Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust which runs local mental health services, said more older adults had also come forward as lockdown isolation and loneliness took their toll.
She added officials were expecting a rise in people with anxiety, depression and other milder conditions after the pandemic once they begin to process its impact.
The official’s comments come as councillors heard staff absences were down to typical levels after peaking at more than 8 per cent by the end of November.
The committee also heard officials had put on a 24 hour daily mental health line to tackle challenges around demand for “crisis” conditions.
Ms Parkinson said a “concerning” amount of those coming forward were not previously known to the NHS.
She added the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) run Inspire in Hull was at full general capacity with its nine beds taken after it opened in January 2020.
The official said:
“Between June and October there was a rise in demand across mental health crisis services.
“Staff absences meant we had to redirect some from community and non-urgent work into core services.
“We’ve used technology for some appointments but we’ve also had to maintain face to face contact in more critical cases, including for those subject to the Mental Health Act.
“We expect more people with anxiety and other conditions to come forward after the pandemic as they begin to process the crisis they’ve lived and worked through.
“Before coronavirus we were in a positive position, but we were seeing pressure from calls into our services.
“We’ve now had to move some patients out to other areas especially since we’ve had a rise in presentations from older people. that’s not a surprise given the isolation and loneliness this has caused.
“A lot of what we’re seeing is in line with national trends.
“Overall we’ve seen few coronavirus positive patients or outbreaks, we currently have no coronavirus positive patients in our hospitals.
“There’s been challenges but we’ve adapted.”
A trust report on the effects of the pandemic stated expected high demand and its impact on services would be “highly challenging”.
But it added there had also been a worsening in the reporting of mental health issues, with April seeing the largest decline in the pandemic so far.
The report stated:
"People have been affected by the pandemic either directly or through associated factors such as loneliness, financial problems and exposure to domestic violence.
“Some groups appear to be more affected than others, including women, young adults, those with preexisting mental health conditions and adults living with children.”