To coincide with the online publication of “365 Steps to Self-Confidence” – a book about how to improve self-confidence – HowTo.co.uk takes a look at why mental health is Britain’s biggest social problem…
Mental health problems in the UK are at the highest since records began. One in four UK adults experience at least one diagnosable mental health problem in any one year, and one in six experiences this at any given time (The Office for National Statistics Psychiatric Morbidity report).
Happy?
It is surprising to read in a recent survey that only 36% of the UK’s adult population say they are ‘very happy’, compared to over 50% in the mid-50s. We are richer that at any time in the past, with more opportunities available in both work and leisure activities, and our liberty is protected by a network of laws that have removed many of the discriminations experienced by previous generations.
Although it has been suggested that depression is over-diagnosed, it is clear that a number of factors are responsible for this relentless downturn in the nation’s low esteem. Long working hours, the breakdown of the family unit and communities, and the pressure to conform to a media-generated ideal of living are all inescapable realities of modern life, and have resulted in a major impact on our mental health.
The Economy
Government adviser and ‘happiness tsar’ Richard Layard, director of the Well-Being Programme at the London School of Economics and author of several controversial high-profile reports and books on mental health, was prompted to comment in 2005 that ‘mental illness is now our biggest social problem’. It is telling that Layard is an economist by trade.
Stigma
The credit crunch has caused many people to worry about the safety of their jobs and the impact of unemployment on their lives. This is a double whammy for the mental health sufferer. The government report on Mental Health and Social Exclusion from 2004 raised some worrying statistics, with 55% of mental health sufferers identifying stigma as a barrier to employment and less than 40% of employers stating that they would consider employing someone with a mental health problem. Research shows that mental health sufferers have the highest ‘want to work’ rate among any disabled group, yet have the highest levels of unemployment.
Returning to work has been proved to have a beneficial effect on people with long-term and enduring mental health problems, so the continuing stigma is nothing short of scandalous. Lord Darzi’s interim review of the NHS in 2008 offered some hope for a better service, with the emphasis on prevention and promotion work around mental health and the introduction of integrated return to work initiatives.
However, with investment in adult mental health promotion dropping from £6 million to £2 million in the past five years (the 2006/07 National Survey of Investment in Mental Health Services), funding needs to be dramatically increased in order to realise Darzi’s vision. The likelihood of rising unemployment in the current economic climate has worrying implications, with mental health sufferers likely to be discouraged from applying for jobs and squeezed further out of the fabric of conventional life.
Taboo
The general public perception of mental health remains worryingly rooted in a bygone age. Mental health issues were governed in the 19th century by ‘lunacy laws’, and it sometimes feels as if we have hardly progressed beyond those times.
A parliamentary survey in 2008 showed that, despite one in five MPs admitting to experiencing mental health problems of their own, they had not received any training in dealing with problems and were unaware of the duties involved in protecting their staff from discrimination. All of which goes to show that mental illness remains a taboo subject for many, leaving sufferers to deal with their problems in solitude rather than risk the shame of disclosing them. It will require those in positions of authority to be unapologetic about mental illness before we can start to deal with this ‘invisible’ social problem.
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