The medical and economic effects of COVID-19 are expected to be profound, and possibly comparable to those of the influenza pandemic of 1918 and the great depression. The psychological effect on the population is also expected to be significant, either from fear of the illness itself, the distress and shock associated with changes in routine, the loss of social contact and the economic consequences. This means that demand for mental health services is likely to increase at a time when many face to face mental health services have had to temporarily close or, with recently announced additional Australian Government funding (Office of the Prime Minister, 2 April, 2020), attempt to transition to telehealth, either using telephone or video conferencing. There are early reports of high levels of concern among health professionals and others (Druss, 2020; Ayanian, 2020) but few studies have attempted to measure the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological symptoms in large samples of the population, and at this early stage, little is known about the immediate impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of people accessing mental health services.