Findings have now been published in BMJ Open and can be read here.

Dr Neil Nixon of our Centre for Mood Disorders is a collaborator and co-author on this COVID-19 mental healthcare informatics project. 

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and UK lockdown policies have had substantial potential impacts on mental healthcare delivery, but there has been little quantification to date.

Data from seven mental health Trusts in England and one Scottish provider have been assembled measuring daily recorded mortality, and caseloads and contacts from 01.01.2019 to 30.05.2020 across working age community [WA], child/adolescent [CAMHS], early intervention in psychosis [EIP], home treatment team [HTT], liaison, and older adult services, as well as inpatient care use. These have been analysed using regression discontinuity, to describe short-term effects of lockdown announcement measures, with meta-analysed site-specific output.  We will repeat analyses using Wales data from the SAIL Databank to validate findings.

Results: Following lockdown, all service types showed reduced face-to-face and increased virtual contacts. Caseloads were increased in WA and EIP services and reduced in all others. Caseloads after lifting of lockdown, compared to pre-lockdown, were reduced in inpatient care, CAMHS, HTT, liaison and older adults, and were increased in EIP. Daily mortality increased on lockdown (IRR 2.22; 95% CI 1.74-2.84), had dropped after lifting of lockdown (0.42; 0.26-0.70) and was no different between post-lockdown and pre-lockdown (0.92; 0.61-1.38).

Conclusions: Substantial changes have occurred in mental healthcare since March. Increasing capacity for informative data extracts from mental healthcare might offer unprecedented opportunities for real-time monitoring and timely responsiveness.