University of Cumbria researchers are looking to the public for help in working out how government and society at large can best support people in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

Academics at the University of Cumbria’s Centre for Research in Health and Society are keen to hear from people across the county about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected them.

The centre aims to use the experiences of individuals in Cumbria to draw up recommendations on how to ensure everyone is properly supported in the efforts to recover from the coronavirus crisis.

The researchers want to understand what people need support with now, so as to share their findings with councils and national government.

Kaz Stuart, Professor of Social and Health Inequalities at the research centre, said it was important that academics - and policymakers - understood the full range of the impact coronavirus has had on communities in Cumbria, and beyond.

“We’ve never experienced anything like this before, multiple countries across world locked down and not for many generations have individuals had their personal freedoms curtained so completely,” she said.

“That is why this research is vital because it is all too easy to overlook the impact of coronavirus on people’s lives that differ from our own.

“We need understand the impacts so that services can be adapted to meet their needs when this is all over.”

Email CRiHS@cumbria.ac.uk to share your experiences, or to find out more information about the research.