Issues impacting young people on The Mix’s helpline: October-December, 2020

With local and national lockdowns in place due to COVID-19, young people experienced a lot of uncertainty between September and December 2020. Student life continued to be disrupted and the festive season was impacted by the increased risk of infection and changing of rules, meaning lots of young people couldn’t spend time with their families and some were coping with bereavement. This made autumn 2020 a very challenging time for under 25s, and this is reflected in The Mix helpline data.

Two areas of young people’s lives show the greatest impact; they are mental health and education. The number of requests for support discussing anxiety or depression have risen even higher than in the previous two quarters, with over a quarter of cases mentioning each. Year on year, the cases have risen dramatically by 10 percentage points (pp) for depression and 7.7 pp for anxiety.

The number of conversations around school and education have almost tripled year on year with around one in 10 conversations mentioning this topic. For some students, the pandemic, with its restrictions, triggered or exacerbated existing mental health issues, which negatively impacted their studies. A loss of support network connected with a move to university, the inability to build a new one due to restrictions, alongside loneliness and lack of motivation to study were some of the important themes discussed on the helpline. Cases mentioning family have also risen sharply year on year.

To find out more, read our full report: https://cdn.themix.org.uk/uploads/2021/10/The-Mixs-Quarterly-Helpline-Trends-Autumn-2020-3.pdf