The corona crisis is having an effect on mental health, an online survey by the Trimbos Institute has shown, and is deepening feelings of anxiety in people who had already difficulty coping.

Of the 3,000 respondents, 40% said they were suffering from increased stress because of worry about their financial future and unemployment. Some 60% of this group said they experienced anxiety, while half mentioned sleepless nights.

A small group, some 13%, said they fear the virus itself and four in five of them are suffering with serious depression and anxiety. ‘This is a group that we have to keep an eye on,’ head of the Trimbos epidemiological department Derek de Beurs told Trouw. ‘It’s the most vulnerable group and we must find a way of offering them help now that regular mental health care is more difficult to reach.’

Some 83% of the respondents were women and relatively few young people participated in the survey. ‘It is not a representative sample but it does confirm what we already thought. This crisis is exacting a heavy toll,’ De Beurs said. ‘Respondents said they had felt their mental health deteriorate and suffered more from feelings of loneliness and depression. We are worried about the increase in people with problems.’

De Beurs told the paper that he expects a ‘tsunami’ of psychological problems. ‘The number of failed companies will continue to rise, as well as people who are mourning loved ones,’ he said.

De Beurs said one approach to the problem is to upscale mental health provisions, particularly when the corona crisis is past. However, mental health services are already struggling and the solution may be nearer home.

‘Care in the community could be the answer, where people with psychological problems are counselled by people who have experienced similar problems, or via online mental health programmes,’De Beurs said.

In the DutchNews.nl readers’ survey, 64% said they were worried or very worried about the folk back home, 45% were worried or very worried about their income and 40% said they were worried about the impact of coronavirus on their health.

Several readers also wrote about how lonely they are.