Incorporating Wellbeing and Mental Health Research to Improve Pandemic Response

Abstract

This chapter discusses the potential for wellbeing research to be institutionalised into emergency response in the UK. We review the short and long-run wellbeing impacts of COVID-19 policies and argue for a wider scope of groups such as the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). The potential form of such response could be based both on emerging multi-dimensional societal wellbeing frameworks and on rapid and scalable policy appraisal capacities that incorporate wellbeing considerations.