Solidarity Steve

We are in the grips of a mental health crisis in this country, and one that is getting worse, and far from address it, it looks like the government is going to absolve itself of responsibility and blame doctors and the mentally ill. Is this the kind of government we want to represent us, one that prioritises stigmatising those with mental illness rather than supporting them?

Anyone who has suffered mental ill health will know the difficulty in talking about it, the fear and shame that comes with having a mental illness, and the reluctance that there is to speak to even a medical professional about it.

Mental health campaigns and campaigners have fought tooth and nail for decades to ‘smash the stigma’, to make it ok to not be ok and to openly talk about mental health and seek help, so is it any surprise that more people are becoming brave enough to talk about it? Shockingly however Mind identifies that the stigma and discrimination of those suffering mental illness is getting worse, and within this context Streeting’s comments are not only unhelpful but damaging and dangerous.

The leading cause of death among men under 50 is suicide, that speaks to a far deeper crisis of men having undiagnosed mental health issues, and one that won’t be addressed by further stigmatising of mental illness.

We don’t have overdiagnosis, but what we do have however is an underfunded and overstretched mental health support system, which means there is inadequate early intervention, that young people are not getting the mental health support they need, and these problems are allowed to get worse and hit crisis point. Astonishingly and shamefully only a third of young people suffering mental health difficulties have access to treatment, these problems don’t fix themselves.

The Mind Big Mental Health Report 2024 shows that there are over 2 million people on waiting lists for NHS mental health support, that there are nearly 30,000 vacant mental health posts in the workforce, the problems in the mental health service are clearly deep rooted beyond any scapegoating of overdiagnosis.

What it also showed is that 60% of people in the UK said the cost of living crisis was hurting their wellbeing, and that those with mental health problems earn £10,000 less than those who don’t.

Maybe rather than attacking those facing mental health stigma, we as a society should seek to address the underlying causes of mental health, create a strong intervention programmes with enough support and funding to treat mental illnesses early, and to provide the after care that we also drastically need.

We should champion the fact that so many people are being brave enough to come forward and get help, instead of trying to gaslight them into thinking they do not have any mental health issues and everything is fine.

It isn’t so much that we are being over diagnosed, it’s that the system is failing and austerity will only make it worse. But it’s a lot easier and cheaper for the government to put their head in the sand and just say “mental health crisis, what mental health crisis?”