The annual health survey of Britain comes up with some startling statistics, not the least of which is that about one in four adults, some 26%, have been diagnosed with a mental health problem in their lifetimes. Depression is the most common illness, suffered at some time or other, by an astonishing 19% of the population. You do wonder how the country continues to function with frightening statistics like these.
One of the (many) therapists I have seen over the years told me that mental illness was “the great unknown” and that the figures we get of those suffering from mental illness were probably a massive underestimation. There are people who never get near to getting help, many not even realising that they are ill, but more importantly that there are things you can do about it.
Then I found myself quite impressed with the stats because it means there are an awful lot of people out there who struggle through mental ill health and, somehow, get by. They live an apparently ‘normal’ life whilst unbeknown to others, they often view life through a thick fog. There are people out there who regard those with depression as weak. In fact, 19% of adults think that one of the main causes of mental illness is a “lack of self-discipline and willpower”. Now, I’d say – and I have to register an interest here – that the exact opposite is the case. You try and get up for work when your legs feel like lead and your brain is papier mache. And you do it unsupported and alone. That requires industrial quantities of self-discipline and willpower, way beyond the wilder imaginings of some of the respondents.
The survey does not say that 26% of us are basket cases in the here and now. It’s throughout a lifetime, so happily the constant figure will be a great deal lower than that. But even this week, I have met and socialised with people who were on a wide variety of drugs and varied types of treatment and you would have thought the 26% figure was somewhat conservative.
Sorry to go on about David Cameron again but he is the prime minister and the buck stops with him. So his comments just this week on mental health have been encouraging. I only say encouraging because his planned new ‘investment’ represents only a tiny figure when compared to the cuts his government has imposed on mental health services since 2010. And it’s not new money, either. It’s money that was announced by his oppo, George Osborne, in the autumn statement being re-announced by the PM. An age-old political trick done pretty well to death by Gordon Brown when he was chancellor. At least Brown and Labour did spend extra money on our NHS, unlike…
To be honest, I wasn’t as over-enamoured with Cameron’s announcement as MIND CEO Paul Farmer was. I suppose as he was part of the panel that made the specific recommendations that Cameron announced, he could hardly say what a load of old crap it was. The fact that only the previous week he had been made a CBE would not have been part of his thoughts. And I am not impressed because, as ever, this is sticking plaster stuff from Cameron. Little is being invested in prevention – in fact, this area is still being cut – and even less is being provided by way of information and guidance.
At least it seems to show that mental health might just matter politically, that there could be votes in it. I suppose that is a positive thing, but I would have to be completely mad to vote for this lot.
