I'm on my way to alcoholism anyway due to this year long psychological terrorism.
Now, seriously, I'd always use the Covid wooden langue and invoke "support bubble" or such, in total innocence and serenity, shamelessly, if asked why I have friends for dinner...
A most interesting idea.
There is an established argument that "human contact" is psychologically necessary and deprivation from the same is damaging.
If this is challenged all the way, it could well be tied up in expert advice before the courts for years and years - which would be good, from a sceptics point of view, because it would force the government to justify its dictat.
All that is needed, I would have thought, is the advice/recommendation of a registered psychiatrist or suitably qualified medical practitioner?
It becomes even more interesting because it is clear (to me at least) that the number "15" is plucked out of thin air and has no logical justification, just like the "6" in rule-of. The government would have a helluva-job trying to justify "15". They would probably end up having to reveal that is just something that drops out of some presumption in some dubious mathematical model.
So, if a psychiatry opinion says a group of people need to meet in, say, 20 because there is a family unit of 20, for example, that could challenge the whole "15" concept.
As usual with stupid laws, once you tug at one string, the whole thing starts falling apart fairly quickly.
If I was a registered psychiatrist, I would get to work on it right now. There must be someone out there who is, and is willing ...
Might work. But the regulations also state that it has to be "reasonably necessary" for the group to meet in person. You might get some pedant of a copper or (if it goes to Court) judge who questions you as to why you can't do it via a Zoom call.
Yes, I'm thinking that one step would be to pull together a bunch of serious studies on the mental health costs of lockdown (or even just physical contact and deprivation generally), and have a one-page mission statement citing those studies as the basis for the formation of the charity. Call the charity "Essential Presence" or something like that. There is plenty of evidence for this, and the point is that deprivation of real in-person presence and social engagement is a genuine cause of mental unwellness, so remote engagement (Zoom, etc) is not a viable substitute but is actually a worsening factor, an enabler of the rot.
Below listed here are some studies and articles on mental-health costs of social isolation, to get this started. Note that the first one in the list concludes, "The prevalence of depressive-, anxiety-, and insomnia symptoms is significantly higher in the UK, relative to pre-pandemic epidemiological data." The evidence from many studies is overwhelming.
And I'll just say this. There is just one person from my street who, to my knowledge, has died in connection to the Covid situation. She did not have Covid. She was a young university student, not yet 20, who had left home for her studies only to find herself, I gather, ordered to stay inside in her dormitory. She had been a bit unstable, yes, but we had not expected she would take her own life. I doubt she would have done so, but for lockdown. A car carrying her body went past our house the other day. We stood in honour with many neighbours. By my estimation, more of us were standing there, crestfallen as her body passed, even than had been there clapping for the NHS at the height of that time.
We all need face-to-fact social contact to guard ourselves against inevitable depression and adverse deconstruction of the psyche.
"Mental health during COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom"
https://journals.lww.com/psychosomaticmedicine/Abstract/9000/Mental_health_during_COVID_19_lockdown_in_the.98497.aspx
"Significant increase in depression seen among children during first lockdown"
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/significant-increase-in-depression-seen-among-children-during-first-lockdown
"Mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic: longitudinal analyses of adults in the UK COVID-19 Mental Health & Wellbeing study"
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/mental-health-and-wellbeing-during-the-covid19-pandemic-longitudinal-analyses-of-adults-in-the-uk-covid19-mental-health-wellbeing-study/F7321CBF45C749C788256CFE6964B00C
"Mental health in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: cross- sectional analyses from a community cohort study"
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/9/e040620.full.pdf
"Covid-19: Suicidal thoughts increased in young adults during lockdown, UK study finds"
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4095
Baumeister RF, Twenge JM, Nuss CK. (2002). Effects of social exclusion on cognitive processes: Anticipated aloneness reduces intelligent thought. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2002;83(4): 817. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.4.817
"The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence"
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30460-8/fulltext
"Depression in and after COVID-19 lockdown in Austria and the role of stress and loneliness in lockdown: A longitudinal study"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7487145/
"Timely mental health care for the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak is urgently needed"
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30046-8/fulltext
"Rapid Systematic Review: The Impact of Social Isolation and Loneliness on the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in the Context of COVID-19"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7267797/
"Social isolation in mental health: a conceptual and methodological review"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5702385/
"Levels of depression and anxiety higher amongst those from BAME backgrounds during lockdown"
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/jul/levels-depression-and-anxiety-higher-amongst-those-bame-backgrounds-during-lockdown
https://news.ohsu.edu/2015/10/05/research:-face-to-face-socializing-more-powerful-than-phone-calls-emails-in-guarding-against-depression-in-older-adults
https://news.ohsu.edu/2015/10/05/research:-face-to-face-socializing-more-powerful-than-phone-calls-emails-in-guarding-against-depression-in-older-adults
"Face-to-Face Social Contact Reduces Risk of Depression"
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-athletes-way/201510/face-face-social-contact-reduces-risk-depression
I’m in the early stages of trying to set a group up. My profession is ‘psychotherapist’ so going under the banner of ‘essential health’ and aim to run ‘circle time/group therapy’ should the Gestapo turn up with the TSG stormtroopers. Problem I’m up against is the town I live in are lockup zealots so encouraging those that need support could be a hurdle. Nonetheless, I plan to try and will keep the thread updated.
Good plan. Which town is this incidentally?
Another thought. How do you vet people for these groups? There's likely to be some sort of Karen who would join such a group and then snitch on all the other participants. Do you make it so that people aren't told about it unless they're recommended by two other members?
A great post freedom of A...yes which town and in this snitch on your neighbour culture that has been cultivated and encouraged even if you dont want to be it has made people suspicious and wary...
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