The sad fact is there is basically no mental health service in the UK at all. The UK could be dealing with this and giving people in need appropriate care but lack of access to care has been a consistent theme for a decade. It is critically underfunded like everything else in the NHS and barely works even if people do get seen. In a functioning society the government would have anticipated the increased pressure that all this would have on people, especially loosing their jobs due economic impacts, and ensured there was an appropriate safety net. That didn't happen and it just adds to the despair. Many mentioned money worries, not a surprise given the economic havoc this pandemic is delivering.

It isn't just about lockdown or not, there is a whole range of options on how to do all of this and right now the UK government has chosen a lot of bad ways for bad reasons and left a lot of people with no hope. The mental health crisis in the UK has been worsening for a long time now and this is just another log on the fire.