According to a recent analysis, the state of NSW’s economy might lose up to $7.4 billion by 2025 as a result of rising rates of anxiety and depression brought on by COVID-19 lockdowns.
The price is a result of a predicted 171,615 additional persons in NSW reporting lockdown-related mental health disorders in 2021, including despair and anxiety.
As the Delta variety expanded in 2021, NSW went into lockdown, with restrictions in Sydney lasting for over four months.
The study was conducted by the NSW Council of Social Service (NCOSS), and the results are described in the first chapter of the book Aftershock: Addressing the Economic and Social Costs of the Pandemic and Natural Disasters, which was released on Thursday.
A 46% rise in 12- to 17-year-old females visiting emergency rooms for self-harm or suicide ideation between 2018 and 2021 is one example of the report’s findings that there has been an increase in mental distress in recent years.
During the same time period, prescriptions for antidepressants increased by 9.3%, which is more than twice as fast as other medications.
Before COVID-19, according to NCOSS Chief Executive Joanna Quilty, the estimated annual direct cost of poor mental health to the Australian economy ranged from $40 billion to $70 billion.
We are aware that prolonged lockdowns in our state caused people’s mental health to deteriorate, and that women with small children were the ones most negatively impacted, Ms. Quilty added.
Additionally, recent natural catastrophes have furthered the image of increased psychological suffering in communities around NSW.
She said that the $7.4 billion loss to the NSW economy over five years was an underestimate.
According to Ms. Quilty, this is a modest estimate since it solely considers how COVID lockdowns would affect the state’s working population.
It “doesn’t account for natural calamities or the effects on the whole community’s mental health.”
According to studies, children, women, and older individuals who are reliant on others were especially severely struck by the psychological repercussions of previous catastrophes, according to Carmel Tebbutt, CEO of the Mental Health Co-ordinating Council.
Community mental health services are essential for disaster relief because they lessen the burden of mental illness by assisting with recovery and reducing the intensity and long-term hazards, the expert added.
Ms. Tebbutt praised the NSW government’s June budget pledge of $2.9 billion for mental health services during 2022–2023 but lamented the fact that the state still lagged behind others in providing residential and community mental health care.
It follows the release of the most recent national statistics, which reveal that on Wednesday, there were 56 COVID-19-related fatalities recorded, along with 15,732 new cases, 3199 hospital patients, and 93 patients in critical care units.
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