Parent Mental Health Day 2022: what issues have stressed parents out most during the Covid pandemic?

Parent Mental Health Day is founded by the charity stem4, which promotes positive mental health in teenagers and those who support them, and takes place on 27 January this year.

The day aims to encourage understanding and awareness of mental health in parents.

The Covid pandemic has taken its toll on many people’s mental health, including parents and guardians, who have had to adapt to a wealth of changes during the pandemic, including homeschooling, Covid bubbles and self-isolation.

But which factors have had the biggest impact on the mental health of parents during the Covid crisis?

According to stem4, the following have negatively impacted parents’ mental health and wellbeing during the pandemic:

1.   Effect of lockdowns - including homeschooling and the loss of income

2.   Fear of a family member becoming ill

3.   Fear they (the parent) would become ill

4.   Work pressures

5.   Financial worries

6.   Effect of not being able to work

7.   Loneliness

8.   No time for their own mental health

9.   Family relationship difficulties

10. Putting family first

According to the charity, some parents felt the following would improve mental health and wellbeing going forward:

1.   Increase monthly income to pay essential bills

2.   A guarantee that schools will remain open over the next year

3.   Better work-life balance

4.   More time to look after their own mental health

5.   Better access to health services generally - including GP appointments, mental health services and hospital appointments

6.   Free/affordable childcare

7.   Equal distribution of unpaid chores in the home

8.   Better home living conditions

9.   Access to more paid work

10. Better access to children’s mental health services

Dr Nihara Krause, consultant clinical psychologist and founder of stem4, said: “stem4’s Parent Mental Health Day is here to shine a light on the challenges facing so many parents and to encourage discussion around these shared issues without feeling embarrassed to do so.

“Right now, many parents are feeling overwhelmed, negative, and helpless. Collectively, we need to challenge the stigma associated with mental ill health by opening the conversation and to start tipping the balance towards positive mental health.”

Dr Krause said a good start to this would be to highlight the urgent need to enhance family mental health from birth to adulthood, as well as working collectively to “properly fund a range of child, young person and adult mental health services”.

She added: “This would enable all groups to find resilient ways to deal with challenges that have emerged from the pandemic, and to stop the escalating impact of untreated mental ill health difficulties by improving access to effective treatments.”