Research

COVID-19 and Mental Health and Wellbeing Research: Informing Targeted, Integrated, and Long-Term Responses to Health Emergencies

Authors:

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed many questions as to how governments should best respond to health emergencies, including questions as to how to develop responses that consider mental health and wellbeing impacts. This paper argues that mental health and wellbeing research should have an important role in informing responses that are targeted, integrated and long-term. It provides relevant examples of mental health research, policy, and practice in the UK, including research on the dynamic and complex relationships between mental health and social determinants of mental health such as poverty and social support. A particular focus here is on the impacts of the pandemic on children’s and young peoples’ mental health and wellbeing. The paper continues by referring to examples of the role of economic research in informing trade-off decisions. The paper ends by describing the role of networks and partnerships between policy, practice and research to ensure that relevant evidence is produced and appropriately disseminated during health emergencies and beyond. The author presents a perspective in this paper, which draws on her own research and research conducted by the Centre for Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC) at LSE.

Keywords:

COVID-19pandemichealth emergenciesmental healthevidenceknowledgeeconomicpolicy
  • Year: 2021
  • Volume: 2 Issue: 2
  • Page/Article: 6
  • DOI: 10.31389/lseppr.45
  • Submitted on 28 Jun 2021
  • Accepted on 21 Sep 2021
  • Published on 20 Dec 2021
  • Peer Reviewed