“The vaccine can stop propensity for physical symptoms,but the mental health tail - the consequences of how we’re feeling as a result of all that has happened during the pandemic - will go on for some period of time,” Ms Morgan said. “It takes energy to be emotionally strong and people are feeling tired and fatigued.”
This fatigue meant people were less able to manage the normal stresses of life and became anxious much more quickly if the virus surged or governments called snap lockdowns.
The number of people contacting Lifeline in February was up 16 per cent from the same month in 2020 and 34 per cent from 2019. There were also more than a million Medicare-subsidised mental health treatments in the four weeks to February 14 - 9 per cent higher than the same period last year before the pandemic but after the “black summer” bushfires.
Last year the Australian government increased the number of mental health treatments that can be subsidised by Medicare from 10 to 20 a year. Ms Morgan said she hoped the increase in treatments was a combination of more people seeking help and individual people getting more help.
She is especially concerned about young people,aged from about 14 into their early 20s,because that age group was reporting the highest levels of anxiety and distress.