Current awareness updates
Fairer foundations: How has the pandemic affected young people’s mental health? Infographic
The Health Foundation; 2021.
[This infographic highlights the unequal mental health effects of the pandemic among young people. Young people’s lives have been significantly impacted by the pandemic – disrupted schooling, lost employment and not being able to see friends. But the effects of the crisis have not been the same for everyone, including a divergence of mental health experiences.]
Coronavirus and depression in adults, Great Britain: January to March 2021.
Office for National Statistics (ONS); 2021.
[Analysis of the proportion of the British adult population experiencing some form of depression in early 2021, by age, sex and other characteristics. Includes comparisons with 2020 and pre-pandemic estimates.]
Care pathway and prioritization of rapid testing for COVID-19 in UK hospitals: a qualitative evaluation.[Abstract]
Hicks T. BMC Health Services Research 2021;21(1):532.
[This study sought to understand the care pathways in place in UK NHS hospitals during the first wave (March-July 2020) for identification of patients with COVID-19 and to learn lessons to inform optimal testing strategies within the COVID-19 National Diagnostic Research and Evaluation Platform (CONDOR). During the winter months, priority for provision of rapid testing at admission should be given to hospitals with limited access to laboratory services and single room availability.]
Adult social care and COVID-19 after the first wave: assessing the policy response in England: Our analysis of the national government policy response for social care between June 2020 and March 2021.
The Health Foundation; 2021.
[In this briefing, the Health Foundation analyse policies to support adult social care during the height of the second wave of the pandemic in January and February 2021, and in the months leading up to it. We provide a narrative summary of central government policies related to adult social care in different areas, such as policies on testing and support for the workforce. We also provide a summary of the latest publicly available data on the impacts of COVID-19 on adult social care.]
Happy to help: the welfare effects of a nationwide micro-volunteering programme.
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE); 2021.
[This paper estimates the wellbeing benefits from volunteering for England’s NHS Volunteer Responders programme, which was set up in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It found that active volunteers report significantly higher life satisfaction, feelings of worthwhileness, social connectedness, and belonging to their local communities. A social welfare analysis shows that the benefits of the programme were at least 140 times greater than its costs.]
Coronavirus Act report: May 2021.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[The seventh two-monthly report on which powers in the Coronavirus Act 2020 are currently active.]
Vivaldi study: results.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[Results for the Vivaldi study for antibody and cellular immune responses to coronavirus (COVID-19) in approximately 340 care homes.]
Deaths involving COVID-19 in the care sector, England and Wales: deaths registered between week ending 20 March 2020 and week ending 2 April 2021.
Office for National Statistics (ONS); 2021.
[Provisional figures on deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19), an investigation into wave 1 versus wave 2 within the care sector, in England and Wales.]