The COVID-19 restrictions had unexpected and far-reaching effects on children and young people in Northern Ireland. During the pandemic, there was a significant increase in the number of young people seeking mental health services. The reduction of support previously accessible through schools and the suspension of mental health specialist support teams further compounded the situation.
By Professor Sir Geoff Mulgan, Engagement Lead and Co-Investigator of IPPO and Professor Muiris MacCarthaigh, Policy Engagement Lead for Northern Ireland, with contributions from the wider IPPO team. This paper accompanies a systematic evidence review carried out during 2022 by the EPPI centre for the International Public Policy Observatory (IPPO) on the nature and extent of mental health issues arising during the pandemic and the evidence on the effectiveness of mental health interventions delivered at-scale. This work has been supported by an advisory group chaired by the Mental Health Champion for Northern...
The pandemic triggered an increase in the incidences of mental health problems across the globe. It also revealed a need to identify what mental health service provision, available at population-level, is effective. A population-level problem naturally requires solutions that can be rolled out at scale. Since January 2022, the EPPI-Centre (UCL), which is part of the the International Public Policy Observatory (IPPO) collaboration, has been conducting a systematic review of the most effective, scalable interventions to address anxiety and depression, shown to have surfaced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy briefing that...
Surveys and interviews from over 70,000 participants over two years provided rare, privileged insight into the effects of the pandemic on people’s daily lives
