In our hospitals and psychiatric clinics, it has already begun. Increasing numbers of people are seeking help for mental health problems associated, in one way or another, with Covid-19. Professionals warn that the psychiatric effects of the pandemic and the lockdown will endure much longer than the physical effects of the virus.

And those psychiatric effects are alarmingly diverse: anxiety, psychosis, eating disorders, PTSD.

Prof Fiona McNicholas is a Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Crumlin Children's Hospital. She talks about the tsunami of mental health problems we face, the unexpected ways Covid-19 can harm our minds, and the potential for technology to aid therapy in a time of social distancing.

Next week, Ireland will enter phase two of the roadmap out of lockdown. We’ll be able to travel 20km from our homes and visit another household while maintaining social distancing. Street level shops will open and some sporting and fitness activities will begin again. But will this taste of freedom mean people will push the boundaries even more? Large crowds flocked to beauty spots over the long weekend, while thousands gathered in close proximity at a Black Lives Matter protest earlier this week. In today’s episode, Deirdre Veldon speaks to Pete Lunn a behavioural economist with the Economic and Social Research Institute. With community transmission quite low, Lunn explains how this may affect willingness to comply to ongoing restrictions.

Should all retailers, restaurants and tourism be allowed to open sooner? Business affairs correspondent and columnist Mark Paul has been arguing for an accelerated easing of restrictions on businesses, especially for the sake of our small and medium sized enterprises, "the lifeblood of our economy". He tells Deirdre Veldon that no-one seems to be fighting their corner, and that the balance of risks to our society is skewed.

Barry Smyth is a data scientist. Early on in the outbreak, he was among the first to realise the importance of looking closely at the number of excess deaths in the population, as revealed by website Rip.ie, to track the true toll of the virus. Since then, he has written about the nature of lockdown measures imposed across Europe, as revealed through data. Which countries are strictest, and what happens to the virus when people start moving about again? Barry talks to Deirdre Veldon about what the data reveals.

Barry Smyth holds the Digital Chair of Computer Science in University College Dublin and is a Director of the Insight Centre for Data Analytics.

Coronavirus has presented a huge challenge for our health services, especially in our nursing homes. The devastating death toll in these settings has come under the spotlight this week for the Dáil's Covid-19 committee. On Tuesday, the committee heard from Tadgh Daly, the head of Nursing Homes Ireland who claimed the sector was left “abandoned and isolated”. Hundreds of pages of newly released documentation, reveal a timeline of correspondence which suggests it took more than a month for a specific plan for nursing homes to be put in place. Jennifer Bray is political reporter with The Irish Times and has been looking into these exchanges between Nursing Homes Ireland and Key State Organisations. In this episode, we also hear from Health Editor Paul Cullen who reflects on the state response to the issues raised by nursing homes.

Margaret Heffernan is a businesswoman and author who writes about leadership and strategic thinking. Her latest book Uncharted: How to Map the Future is about the pitfalls of relying too much on forecasting and predictions, and the benefits of a different kind of readiness. In the book, which was published back in February, Margaret presciently writes about pandemics as an example of the uncertainty and unpredictability of complex events.

Yesterday we reached a significant milestone in our fight against coronavirus. For the first time since the 21st March, there were no new deaths from Covid-19 in Ireland. But how can we keep this figure down as the country continues to emerge from lockdown? In today’s episode, we hear from Dr David Nabarro, a professor of global health at Imperial college London and the World Health Organisation’s special envoy for Covid-19. Dr Nabarro spoke to Deirdre Veldon about the need for localised lockdowns to maintain control over the virus when new peaks emerge and why an effective vaccine could be over two and a half years away.

Among the people most affected by this crisis are children and especially teenagers. Lockdown has put an abrupt stop to their education and their social lives. In today's podcast Deirdre Veldon speaks to psychotherapist and Irish Times columnist John Sharry about the developmental impacts the lockdown will have on young people and how parents can prepare for the weeks and months ahead.

Is it time to dispense with nursing homes? The death toll from Covid-19 in these institutions is bringing the arguments for and against them into focus. Today we talk to two experts about what a different future might look like and the challenges getting there. 

Professor Gerard Quinn is a legal academic who contributed to the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the treatment of persons with disabilities, and is now working on a similar convention on the treatment of the elderly. 

Professor Des O'Neill is director of the Centre for Ageing, Neuroscience and the Humanities at Trinity College and a doctor specialising in geriatric care.

Political correspondent Harry McGee tells Deirdre Veldon about the news that Ireland will begin a programme of testing for Covid-19 antibodies in the population next month. How does this test differ to how we are already testing, and what benefits will it bring?