Newsletters

Professor Tamsin Ford at the University of Cambridge worked with national data to track how the mental health of children, young people and families changed between 2017, 2020, 2021 and 2022 to give the best indication of how the pandemic affected these groups.

We have a full newsletter to share with you this month! Below you'll learn about our efforts to more widely share findings from researchers in our Network and about the activities of our special interest groups. We also feature Dr Anna Hood from the University of Manchester who discusses her study focusing on people with chronic illnesses.

As we head towards the close of 2021, we at COVID-MINDS want to wish you a festive and restful holiday. We will see you in 2022 when we will bring together your views and research on the main impact of the pandemic on mental health across the globe, how we manage the psychological consequences of COVID-19 moving forward, and how we can prepare for future crises.

In this newsletter, we hear from our Director and Founder, Dr Daisy Fancourt, who alongside colleagues at UCL foresaw the dramatic effects the pandemic would have on our lives and launched the COVID-MINDS Network eighteen months ago.

This month, we highlight recent longitudinal studies, resources and opportunities for the global mental health community. Our special interest groups, chaired by members of our network, have also launched.

This month, we introduce the newest members of our network, highlight the latest longitudinal research on the impact of the pandemic on mental health, and list resources, conferences and opportunities for the mental health research community. We also feature COVID-MINDS member Dr Praveetha Patalay from University College London.

This is our 15th newsletter since the launch of the COVID-Minds Network last year. It features 16 international studies in our Network, as well as six new special interest groups for researchers.

This month, we feature Dr Ola Demkowicz and Dr Margarita Panayiotou, Lecturers at the Manchester Institute of Education. In April, they and a team of mental health researchers wrote an article on how the speed of research on mental health and COVID-19 may have compromised the quality of the response.

Researchers across our network have launched 150 longitudinal studies examining the impact of the pandemic on mental health and wellbeing.

This month, we welcome new members to our community and summarise study updates, recently published research, and resources.

A year ago the World Health Organization characterised the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. Soon after, the COVID-Minds Network was launched to connect researchers examining how the pandemic would impact the mental health and wellbeing of populations across the world.

This month, we look at how pregnant women have responded in the last year and how young people continue to face specific challenges alongside social distancing and isolation. We also emphasise the importance of increasing research in low- and middle-income countries where the pandemic’s effects on mental health may be long-lasting.

We’ve started off 2021 by looking at how mental health has been significantly impacted across countries, how particular groups have been more affected than others, and what we can do to help our mental health as the pandemic continues.

This month, we’ve examined the effect of the pandemic on: suicide rates, young people and students, people with pre-existing mental health conditions, the delivery of mental health services through telemedicine, and our daily habits and food consumption.

Researchers are examining everything from the psychological impact of the pandemic on children with rare genetic disorders to the effects of COVID-19 on postpartum maternal health outcomes.

This month’s newsletter features our monthly blog summarising key findings from recent research, as well as a spotlight on one of our members.

In our 6th newsletter we publish our second blog providing an update of this month's research. We also introduce a new section showcasing the recent work of member studies. Further resources available on the website are signposted and opportunities for collaborations are listed.

In our 5th newsletter we launch our new COVID-19 monthly blog series, highlight new resources for researchers and showcase our new "translated scales" section of our website.

In our 4th newsletter we link to a blog from our lived experience advisor on how to involve lived experience in COVID-19 mental health research, provide summaries of new papers and feature new funding opportunities.

In our 3rd newsletter we continue to provide updates on longitudinal studies and research papers, introduce 3 research teams looking for collaborators and hear from Dr Anita Goh on the implications of physical distancing restrictions for older people.

In our 2nd newsletter we provide updates on new studies, research and blogs and introduce our latest steering group member.

In our 1st newsletter we introduce the COVID-MINDS Network and outline our aims and focus. We also hear from the network lead Dr Daisy Fancourt on why we need longitudinal studies to understand the mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.