Help us urge Welsh Government to make sure everyone is able to access the mental health support they need during COVID19
To sign our open letter to the Welsh Government please click the box below. If you wish to send it to others your self please feel free to copy this letter for your own use.
To sign our open letter to the Welsh Government please click the box below. If you wish to send it to others your self please feel free to copy this letter for your own use.
Dear First Minister for Wales,
We are writing to ask for your support both now during the COVID-19 virus crisis and longer term. We are seeking your help to protect the mental health of the most vulnerable in Wales by:
We need your assistance in supporting mental health workers to deliver non-face-to-face interventions and resources to Welsh citizens. This issue is long-standing, but has been particularly apparent during the fight against COVID-19, and will undoubtedly be exacerbated further over the coming weeks and months.
Due to COVID-19, services have had to move over to non-face-to-face forms of support. Whilst some provision can be provided over the phone, interventions such as therapy and groups cannot be conducted this way, and resources and information cannot be effectively distributed. Furthermore, individuals who need to visually see a worker are left without support.
The internet provides an excellent opportunity to overcome some of these challenges. For example, video chat using services such as Skype, or secure and confidential messaging through Hospify. The internet also provides access to support networks, which can help prevent isolation, loneliness, and disconnection from communities, family, and friends. This is known factors that contribute to poor mental health.
Access to mental health services has long been an issue for people living in poverty and deprivation because they are least likely to be able to afford to travel to appointments, which are often several miles away from their homes. Those who live in the most deprived circumstances are nine times more likely than those in the least deprived to have a ‘psychosis’ diagnosis. They are also four times more likely to receive a diagnosis of anxiety or depression. This places a disproportionate burden on these individuals, preventing them from accessing the help they desperately need to break out of intergenerational cycles of disadvantage, poverty, and mental health issues for themselves and their children.
The internet is only an opportunity to support these individuals if people have access to it. People who live in poverty often have phones that use credit rather than contracts. They often only have access to a mobile phone and are unable to afford other devices such as tablets or laptops. Therefore, once their credit runs out, they no longer have access to the internet.
Broadband internet has been argued to be a basic utility and is rapidly become a minimum requirement for modern living. What COVID-19 has already shown us is that broadband internet and/or internet mobile phone data are a modern-day basic utility. Everyone needs to be able to access it, to not only to participate in civil society, but to have the easiest access to support services, and to have their basic needs met.
This is why we seek your support to immediately provide unlimited mobile phone data during this COVID-19 crisis, and longer term, to make broadband internet access a basic utility.
Yours sincerely,
1 Jen Daffin, P Clinical Psychologist and Chair Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
2 Dr Matt Yates, Clinical Psychologist and Secretary Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
3 Dr Kiran Guye, Clinical Psychologist and Treasurer Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
4 Dr Sarah Brown, Clinical Psychologist and Committee Member Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
5 Dr Naomi Swift, Clinical Psychologist and Committee Member Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
6 Dr. Rachel Evans, Clinical Psychologist and Committee Member Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
7 Dr Iona Tynewydd, Clinical Psychologist
8 Sarah Wills, Head of Business Development, Platfform
9 Lois Atkinson service manager
10 Joanne Blunt
11 Liz Ostrowski
12 Jennifer Lyons
13 Liz Mander Director of Operations
14 Candice ringer
15 Dr Chey Heap
16 Kieran Towler Housing Manager
17 SamAustin Llamau
18 Dr Dale Thomas.
19 Ewelina Freitag
20 Ewan Hilton
21 Hugh Russell - End Youth Homelessness Cymru
22 Charlotte Christiansen, Systemic Psychotherapist
23 Dr Aimee Pudduck, Clinical Psychologist and Senior Clinical Tutor
24 Alexis Pala
25 Bernadette Byrne Parent Participation Officer
26 Lisa Huish
27 Adam Johannes, Cardiff People's Assembly
28 Brenda charlwood
29 Maire ni mhurchu
30 Maire ni mhurchu
31 Jill Gough
32 Alun Jeremiah
33 Allison Hulmes, National Director BASW Cymru
34 Sheila Littleboy
35 Beryl O’Brien
36 Rebecca Wilks
Submitted on 31/3/2020
We are writing to ask for your support both now during the COVID-19 virus crisis and longer term. We are seeking your help to protect the mental health of the most vulnerable in Wales by:
- Immediately providing unlimited mobile phone data
- In the longer term, making broadband internet access a basic utility
We need your assistance in supporting mental health workers to deliver non-face-to-face interventions and resources to Welsh citizens. This issue is long-standing, but has been particularly apparent during the fight against COVID-19, and will undoubtedly be exacerbated further over the coming weeks and months.
Due to COVID-19, services have had to move over to non-face-to-face forms of support. Whilst some provision can be provided over the phone, interventions such as therapy and groups cannot be conducted this way, and resources and information cannot be effectively distributed. Furthermore, individuals who need to visually see a worker are left without support.
The internet provides an excellent opportunity to overcome some of these challenges. For example, video chat using services such as Skype, or secure and confidential messaging through Hospify. The internet also provides access to support networks, which can help prevent isolation, loneliness, and disconnection from communities, family, and friends. This is known factors that contribute to poor mental health.
Access to mental health services has long been an issue for people living in poverty and deprivation because they are least likely to be able to afford to travel to appointments, which are often several miles away from their homes. Those who live in the most deprived circumstances are nine times more likely than those in the least deprived to have a ‘psychosis’ diagnosis. They are also four times more likely to receive a diagnosis of anxiety or depression. This places a disproportionate burden on these individuals, preventing them from accessing the help they desperately need to break out of intergenerational cycles of disadvantage, poverty, and mental health issues for themselves and their children.
The internet is only an opportunity to support these individuals if people have access to it. People who live in poverty often have phones that use credit rather than contracts. They often only have access to a mobile phone and are unable to afford other devices such as tablets or laptops. Therefore, once their credit runs out, they no longer have access to the internet.
Broadband internet has been argued to be a basic utility and is rapidly become a minimum requirement for modern living. What COVID-19 has already shown us is that broadband internet and/or internet mobile phone data are a modern-day basic utility. Everyone needs to be able to access it, to not only to participate in civil society, but to have the easiest access to support services, and to have their basic needs met.
This is why we seek your support to immediately provide unlimited mobile phone data during this COVID-19 crisis, and longer term, to make broadband internet access a basic utility.
Yours sincerely,
1 Jen Daffin, P Clinical Psychologist and Chair Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
2 Dr Matt Yates, Clinical Psychologist and Secretary Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
3 Dr Kiran Guye, Clinical Psychologist and Treasurer Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
4 Dr Sarah Brown, Clinical Psychologist and Committee Member Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
5 Dr Naomi Swift, Clinical Psychologist and Committee Member Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
6 Dr. Rachel Evans, Clinical Psychologist and Committee Member Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
7 Dr Iona Tynewydd, Clinical Psychologist
8 Sarah Wills, Head of Business Development, Platfform
9 Lois Atkinson service manager
10 Joanne Blunt
11 Liz Ostrowski
12 Jennifer Lyons
13 Liz Mander Director of Operations
14 Candice ringer
15 Dr Chey Heap
16 Kieran Towler Housing Manager
17 SamAustin Llamau
18 Dr Dale Thomas.
19 Ewelina Freitag
20 Ewan Hilton
21 Hugh Russell - End Youth Homelessness Cymru
22 Charlotte Christiansen, Systemic Psychotherapist
23 Dr Aimee Pudduck, Clinical Psychologist and Senior Clinical Tutor
24 Alexis Pala
25 Bernadette Byrne Parent Participation Officer
26 Lisa Huish
27 Adam Johannes, Cardiff People's Assembly
28 Brenda charlwood
29 Maire ni mhurchu
30 Maire ni mhurchu
31 Jill Gough
32 Alun Jeremiah
33 Allison Hulmes, National Director BASW Cymru
34 Sheila Littleboy
35 Beryl O’Brien
36 Rebecca Wilks
Submitted on 31/3/2020
Welsh Government's Reponse
Dai Lloyd in his capacity as Health Committee Chair acknowledged this issue and raised it with WG. You can read about how WG plans to respond to this here:
Coronavirus: Laptops and 4G internet offered to school pupilshttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-52478688
Coronavirus: Village life 'abysmal' without broadband -https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-52380373
There are complications with this as the providers of broadband and 4G in Wales are UK companies.
Coronavirus: Laptops and 4G internet offered to school pupilshttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-52478688
Coronavirus: Village life 'abysmal' without broadband -https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-52380373
There are complications with this as the providers of broadband and 4G in Wales are UK companies.
