Irish Examiner view: Mental health issues during the pandemic

Simple human responses, a listening ear, a supportive hug may be enough to avert a crisis in a friend's life.

Our record in providing appropriate, supportive, and timely mental health care is not enviable. The evidence, all too often expressed through funerals, is irrefutable. 

The pandemic has exacerbated mental health issues and has, in many cases, deepened the emotional stress and sense of isolation so often associated with mental health issues.

One statistic, albeit from Britain, must set alarm bells ringing; research showed an 18% decrease in the number people presenting at hospitals with self-harm issues during 12 lockdown weeks from March 2020, compared to the same period of 2019. 

It would be wonderful to believe that fall represents a change in behaviour but that seems unrealistic. 

It may be unrealistic too to hope that change has not got an equivalent on this side of the Irish Sea. 

Once again those simple human responses, a listening ear, a supportive hug may be enough to avert a crisis in a friend's life. There can hardly be an occasion when so little might achieve so much.