Why is our country failing to address the rising tide of mental illness?

 

By Lucette Davies

With cuts in the funding of Mental Health NHS services alongside cuts to social services and other local authority cuts there could not be a worse time for anyone suffering from any sort of mental health problem.  But welfare changes, the shortage of well-paid jobs, the abundance of inadequate housing and the rising cost of housing have contributed to an escalation in the number of people struggling with emotional distress.  We have seen an increase in demand for mental health services and an increase in the suicide rate.  Do we accept this situation and mutter about it being ‘a shame’ or do we stand up and say that this amount of suffering is something that we will not tolerate?

A new initiative to tackle the mental health crisis

By Lucette Davies

Anyone whose life has been touched by mental illness will know all too well the horrific personal cost that it can exact not just on the sufferer but also on friends and families.  And anyone who watched BBC Panorama show Britain’s Mental Health Crisis on Monday night will understand about the current crisis that exists in the NHS services that are struggling to tackle the huge demand for treatment relating to mental illness.  Mental illness is hard to understand and frightening for many people who feel it stretches their capacity for compassion to the limit.  But how much longer can we ignore the fact that we are letting down a huge sector of the population, at an enormous cost to the nation?  Feeling that there must be other ways to help alleviate the burden I went along to talk to somebody at the Sussex Recovery College to find out what they are offering in the way of support for the mentally ill.

Surely we could do more to stop the devestation of Anorexia Nervosa?

By Lucette Davies

Anorexia Nervosa has the highest fatality rate of all psychiatric illnesses.  Before the 1970s we heard little about eating disorders and then suddenly they became something that many people were talking about. The French have now decided that they are going to legislate so every model in the fashion industry has to have a weight above a certain Body Mass Index (BMI).  But how much difference will this make to the prevalence of eating disorders in France?

Talking about mental illness and why we all need to

By Lucette Davies

Many people have been outraged (again) by another crass statement from Katie Hopkins, this time about people who suffer from depression.  Katie Hopkins has made her name by inspiring outrage through her insensitive and sometimes hateful comments.  It is not surprising that she turned her attention to mental illness. But, it does surprise me how many other people express an equally intolerant attitude towards mental illness.

Headline grabbing media reports are harming the mentally ill

By Lucette Davies

The media is powerful and shapes the public’s beliefs on many issues without us even being conscious of the strength of its influence.

But now once again there is a serious criminal act being linked to psychiatric illness in the press as people search desperately for clues as to why the co-pilot of a Germanwings plane would deliberately crash the plane into the side of a mountain.