Fears that some Hartlepool people 'may never fully get over' the mental impact of coronavirus

Councillor Stephen Thomas, Hartlepool Borough Council’s mental health champion, believes more residents are likely to come forward with mental health issues as lockdown begins to ease.

He therefore stressed the importance of health providers, the local authority and the community and voluntary sector being ready to address the issues.

Cllr Thomas said: “I think as we start to come out of lockdown, as people start to return to a degree of more normal living, then I think there is going to be a lot of mental health issues starting to surface which we haven’t as of yet picked up.

“We’ve heard already from the Government, from the World Health Organisation, the long-term mental health implications from Covid are not going to be over in a year or two, they’re going to be with us for many, many years to come.

“For some individuals and families out there, they will never probably fully get over what has happened during Covid.”

He made the comments at the latest meeting of Hartlepool’s outbreak control engagement working group.

He added: “It’s really important that whilst we’re dealing with those other issues, that we do bear in mind some of these things that are going to be starting to come more to the fore as we move into the next phase of this.

“I think that they really have got to be on the radar for the authority, for health providers, and for our community and voluntary sector colleagues going forward.”

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