Coronavirus and Mental Health

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Mental Health, Wellbeing and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:23 pm on 20 January 2021.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 2:23, 20 January 2021

Diolch, Jack, and I'm really sorry to hear about your constituents. They are not on their own. I am really concerned about the pressure people are under. Anxiety levels have certainly increased. People are feeling very isolated, they're lonely, they're very concerned about losing their jobs, and a lot of people are concerned about family members. And, of course, we are concerned that we may see an increase in suicide rates, which is why, right at the outset of the pandemic, we commissioned the NHS delivery unit to work with Public Health Wales, and we asked Professor Ann John to chair a national advisory group to review deaths by suicide.

Now, obviously, what we want to do is to put measures in place to stop that from happening in the first place. I've just come off a call with Time to Change Wales, and you're familiar with that, Jack, because I know you were instrumental in asking me to make sure that we continue our funding to that organisation at a time when England stopped theirs. And I think that was a huge mistake, to stop people from talking about mental health issues in the middle of a pandemic, or to stop funding an organisation that encouraged that to happen.

It's absolutely clear that there are some groups that are more reluctant to reach out for help than others. We're particularly concerned about the black, Asian and minority ethnic community, which is why one of the things we've done is we've given additional support to Diverse Cymru, so that they can reach out and reach out to the communities that they're in touch with. But the other group that I'm particularly concerned about is middle-aged men, and that is a real problem that we have, which is why it's really important that we support groups like Men's Sheds, and it's really interesting to see that a lot of those now have recognised the importance of their work and are continuing their work online, and I'd like to encourage that to continue.