Is there a mental health crisis? What Australian data reveals about impact of Covid lockdowns

Lockdowns may harm mental health to an extent, but they also prevent epidemics which definitely do harm, experts say

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Some politicians and commentators are calling for lockdowns to end to prevent a mental health crisis, but it is not clear what exactly the impact is.

Experts who spoke to Guardian Australia said calls to end lockdowns ignored longer-term mental health trends, as well as the fact that increasing cases resulting from reopening would not be great for mental health either.