As we face another two weeks of a national lockdown, that may even extend longer than December, the effect this is having on the mental health of the population is becoming more apparent. The Centre for Mental Health stated last month that up to 10 million people in England may need mental health support due to the impact of the virus.

This problem is often attributed to Covid-19 alone – and it’s certainly true that the pandemic has caused us to experience periods of being locked up inside, paranoia that we or others around us may be carrying a potentially deadly virus and generalised feelings of fear, loneliness and uncertainty. However, as those who have been affected by mental health issues are well aware, the UK has been sinking into this crisis for many years.

Last year, UNISON drew attention to the fact that a decade of austerity has driven mental health services to breaking point. In response to a survey they asked staff working in mental health, 45% were considering leaving their jobs due to a dramatically increased workload and lack of support. It is worth pointing out that this began long before the Tory or Coalition governments – the sector was also chronically underfunded when New Labour was in power. More recent cuts have simply driven it closer to the edge.

Aside from causing stress and unacceptable working conditions for people in the industry, this has had a damaging effect on those who suffer from mental health issues in the UK. Access to talking therapies like Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which is used for everything from anxiety and eating disorders to schizophrenia and depression, can leave people on the waiting list for up to two years.

Not everyone can wait that long for help. Last year, the Office for National Statistics reported that the suicide level in the UK had risen to the highest it has ever been since 2002. It has also been shown that serious mental illnesses can reduce life expectancy by 10 to 20 years – far more even than commonly-acknowledged dangers such as heavy smoking.

Like many others, I have waited over eighteen months for CBT and have been forced to go to A&E due to lack of other resources. While psychiatric drugs are far easier to access than therapy, they can only do so much on their own. It is also apparent that staff in A&E are often ill-equipped to deal with the range of illness that drive people to seek emergency treatment.

According to a report recently released by the Nuffield Trust, people who visit A&E due to mental health reasons are nearly twice as likely to be from a deprived background. There are several explanations for this, of course, but one of them is this: mental health care is available privately for those who can afford it (or who can barely afford it), and therefore they are less likely to be among the acute cases. There is, in other words, a class divide in mental healthcare.

The stigma around therapy and certain mental health conditions has decreased in the past decade. People now discuss going to therapy almost as easily as they would talk about going to the gym. This is an incredible change, but the truth still remains the same — if you can’t afford to go private, the chances of you receiving this therapy are very slim.

Even CBT under the NHS is only for a limited amount of time (mine was twelve weeks) and can feel like putting a plaster on a bullet wound. The fact that such a vital service is a star in the sky for so many people is a devastating reality of the UK’s underfunded health system. The cost of a therapist can vary between £30 and £120 per hour. For anyone on minimum wage or Universal Credit, this is simply not a realistic prospect.

But not only does deprivation make it harder to receive treatment for mental illnesses, it is also part of the reason those illnesses appear in the first place. Children and adults in low-income families are far more likely to develop mental health problems than those from more affluent households. Unstable or unsafe housing, job insecurity, food shortages, debt — the hardships caused by poverty obviously impact mental health and with poverty is increasing at an alarming rate, a decline in general mental health is almost certain to follow.

This is exactly the wrong time for our mental health services to be depleted. Yet, last year, figures revealed that the NHS is losing a large number of mental health nurses leading to hospitals being closed due to staff shortages. The mental health charity, Mind, stated last month that they were concerned about the Prime Minister’s lack of clear provisions for mental health services, already deemed “out-dated and unsafe.”

The health inequality gap between the rich and poor is set to widen as financial hardship, unemployment and homelessness increase in the coming months. This includes the mental health inequality gap. The UK is facing a mental health crisis but just as in all other areas, the poorest and most vulnerable will be hit the hardest.