Mental health and relationships during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In partnership with the Australian National University (ANU), the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) worked to add a range of questions to the Life in Australia panel survey to explore the impact of COVID-19 on mental health, housing, alcohol consumption and service use. The most recent report referenced below focuses on mental health and relationships.

The authors found that there is a very strong relationship between changes in outcomes and psychological distress, even when allowing for pre-COVID mental health outcomes. A particularly strong relationship between changes in stress, loneliness, relationships and mental health outcomes was found. We have been very fortunate in Australia with low rates of COVID-19 infections and mortality rates. However there have been large negative effects on outcomes with young Australians notably in need of support.

The Australian Medical Association recognises the anxiety and stress that financial, employment and family issues cause during this time and have provided resources and online support links on their website. Remember to consult your GP if you need specific personalised mental health advice.

https://healthdirect.gov.au

Link through to the full article here:

Mental Health and Relationships during the COVID-19 Pandemic
ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods
Professor Nicholas Biddle; Associate Professor Ben Edwards; Professor Matthew Gray; and
Kate Sollis.
July 2020

Abstract
The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between mental health outcomes and
relationship quality during the COVID-19 period. We find that after a significant worsening in
mental health outcomes between February 2017 and April 2020, there was strong evidence
for improvements between April and May and weaker evidence for a further improvement
between May and the end of June/start of July. However, for those Australians under the age
of 45, psychological distress is still at a higher level than it was prior to the spread of COVID-
19. We find that a number of people have reported negative changes to their subjective
circumstances. Only 22.5 per cent of the population are estimated to have not experienced
any of the negative changes during the COVID-19 period from our dataset compared to 51.6
per cent who reported no improvements in the same measures. The majority of respondents
reported no change in relationship quality, and for those who did report a change, there was
a net improvement. We find a very strong relationship between self-reported changes in
outcomes and psychological distress, with a particularly strong relationship between changes
in stress, loneliness and relationships and mental health outcomes.