The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have affected the psychological well-being and mental health of many people. Data on prevalence rates of mental health problems are needed for mental health service planning. Psychological well-being and prevalence of clinically significant mental distress were measured in a large sample from Wales 11–16 weeks into lockdown and compared to population-based data collected in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using an online survey disseminated across Wales and open to adults (age 16+) from 9th June to 13th July 2020. Psychological well-being was indexed via the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, and psychological distress was indexed via the K10. Data from 12,989 people who took part in this study were compared to that from April 2018 - March 2019, gathered by the National Survey for Wales ( N = 11,922). Well-being showed a large decrease from 2019 levels. Clinically significant psychological distress was found in around 50% of the population (men = 47.4%, women = 58.6%), with around 20% showing “severe” effects (men = 17.0%, women = 20.9%): a 3–4-fold increase in prevalence. Most affected were young people, women, and those in deprived areas. By June-July 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic had dramatic effects on the mental health of people living in Wales (and by implication those in the UK and beyond). The effects are larger than previous reports. This probably reflects that the current data were taken deeper into the lockdown period than previous evaluations. Mental health services need to prepare for this wave of mental health problems with an emphasis on younger adults, women, and in areas of greater deprivation.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, first responders and health care workers faced elevated virus-related risks through prolonged contacts with the public. Research suggests that these workers already experienced lower levels of psychological well-being linked to occupational risks. Thus, the pandemic's impact might have particularly affected mental health in these groups. This paper analysed data from a large-scale Welsh population study (N = 12,989) from June to July 2020. Levels of psychological distress were compared across various occupations, including police, fire and rescue, and NHS health care workers. Resilience was also indexed, and its role considered as a protective factor for psychological distress. Surprisingly, health care workers reported lower distress levels than the general population. Further, fire and rescue and police groups had lower distress than most groups and significantly higher resilience. Within police officers, higher resilience levels were protective for distress. Fire and rescue workers were half as likely as others to report distress, even accounting for demographic factors and resilience. The findings offer an optimistic view of psychological resilience in these critical occupations. They illustrate potential benefits to one's mental health of playing a crucial societal role during crises and reiterate the importance of enhancing resilience within groups who encounter high-risk situations daily. Practitioner pointsOur findings provide evidence that health care workers and first responders showed lower levels of psychological distress than the general population during the first period of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. This may indicate that playing a critical role in society during an episode of crisis, and acting to help others, may be protective of one's own mental health. The research also provides an optimistic view of the psychological resilience of critical first responders and health care workers during a period early on in the COVID-19 pandemic (June-July 2020). ThisThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

Background: Adolescence is a crucial period for developing and maintaining good habits for mental health and well-being. This is important for future mental health, as most mental health problems manifest during adolescence. Mental health literacy is the foundation for mental health prevention, stigma reduction, and increased help-seeking efficacy particularly among adolescents. The mental health literacy programme "The Guide", which was developed in Canada, has shown success in increasing mental health literacy in North American 16-17 year olds. "The Guide Cymru" is an adaptation of The Guide designed for a younger age group (13-14 year olds) and for the Welsh culture and context and is being offered to all state schools in Wales. Methods: This two-armed cluster randomised control trial (RCT) will evaluate the effectiveness of The Guide Cymru. All 205 secondary schools in Wales will be invited to take part, involving up to 30,000 year 9 pupils. Schools will be randomised to either the immediate implementation of The Guide Cymru or to a wait-list control. The wait-list control will receive The Guide Cymru around 12 weeks later. Measures of mental health literacy (assessed via the Knowledge and Attitudes to Mental Health scale) and mental health problems (via the PedsQL and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) will be taken at baseline (pre-intervention), 12 weeks later (after the active group has received The Guide Cymru), and 24 weeks later (after the wait-list control has received The Guide Cymru). Discussion: The trial aims to evaluate if The Guide Cymru increases mental health literacy, including reduced stigma to others and to the self, and increased levels of good mental health behaviours and help-seeking for mental health problems. Trial registration: ISRCTN15462041. Registered 03/10/2019.

Background. Student engagement and concentration is critical for successful learning. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of online learning which may affect engagement and concentration, particularly for those students with specific learning difficulties.Aims. 1. Students would show lower scores on all the measures of student experience when judging these during online learning versus learning within the classroom. 2. This negative impact of online learning on concentration, engagement, perceived learning, and self-worth compared to classroom education would be more significant for those with specific learning difficulties. 3. The drop in student experience scores due to online learning would be associated with poorer mental well-being.Sample. Four hundred seven pupils aged 11-18 years at a secondary education school in Wales. Methods.A retrospective online survey comparing pupils' normal classroom experience to learning online during the first national lockdown in the United Kingdom (March-July 2020).Results. Pupils' learning experiences (concentration, engagement, ability to learn, and self-worth from learning) were significantly lower for online learning compared to the classroom learning. These differences were more marked in students with specific learning difficulties. Perceived ability to learn and engage during classroom and online learning were also associated with mental well-being.Conclusions. The move to online learning appears to have affected students' ability to concentrate and engage in their schoolwork and appears to have reduced their ability toThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Background Adolescence is a crucial period for the acquisition of good mental health behaviours, which are the foundation for health and wellbeing in later life. Improved knowledge about mental health and improved help-seeking behaviours have been shown to lead to better mental health outcomes. Mental health literacy (MHL) is multifaceted (e.g., knowledge about symptoms, the stigma around mental health, good mental health practices, etc.). Measures are needed that can assess these different aspects of MHL. Measurement of mental health literacy is currently limited due to a lack of reported psychometric instruments with known psychometric properties. Given that most mental health problems start in early adolescence, a scale is needed that is reliable and valid in this age group. Methods The development and validation of the psychometric instrument (termed the Knowledge and Attitudes to Mental Health Scales: KAMHS) entailed two phases: 1) item generation based on an evidence-based intervention programme: The Guide; and 2) item reduction through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for factor structure and psychometric assessment. Participants were 559 Year 9 pupils in secondary schools across Wales aged between 13 and 14 years. Results Results from the CFA indicated an acceptable fit of the model to the data. The KAMHS showed good internal constancy and moderate test-retest validity (.40–.64). Conclusions The final version of the KAMHS contains 50 items that are appropriate for use in children and adolescents. These results suggest that the KAMHS can be used over time to assess the efficacy of interventions aimed at increasing the mental health literacy of adolescent populations.