BBC’s Newsnight and Bedfordshire police have this week highlighted a study that points to a tsunami of mental health conditions and struggles, a fairly predictable outcome following the circumstances of the last 12 months. Is this setting the scene for a mental health crisis, as the annual statistics are still set to be published by the ONS, NHS, HMIC to name a few?
The headline is an average 9 incidents a day were reported to Bedfordshire police through the pandemic, starting from 1 incident in January 2020, to 289 in March 2021. These incidents are defined as where the person has made a serious attempt to take their own life, only being prevented by a limited number of reasons such as contact from the police or other emergency services.
I cannot compute why this has become a police problem, yes there will be related crimes of violence and public disorder offences, but the police needing to invest already spartan funds in mental health management and preventing suicide feels like a classic case of investment in symptom over cause.
Undoubtedly this only represents the thin end of the wedge too, NHS England reports just under 1.4m people in contact with NHS mental health services (Nov 2020), alarmingly 22% of these are children, but at only 2.5% of the population, no doubt many more cases and conditions are undiagnosed, unreported with treatment only limited to medication, or go unsupported full stop.
I look at my own social and professional circle and the number of people who have lived with anxiety or depression, are on prescribed mental health medication, receiving a form of psychological support, or who still don’t even feel able to seek help for symptoms would be more than 2.5%, and wouldn’t feed into this 1.4m. They outweigh the number of people I know who have had covid by a country mile, and the billions spent there long since dropped off the calculator.
Mental health still falls chronically short of the understanding and investment put into physical health.
Just 14% of total local NHS budget was spent on mental health support in 2019/20, and this allocated budget includes learning difficulties and dementia, so feels both a draconian definition of what constitutes a mental health condition and cannot begin to meet the growing need for services. The Government has a 5-year plan, and a commitment that funding for mental health services will grow faster than overall NHS budgets by 2023/24. Whatever that means and whether we can wait that long.
How else can we approach this growing problem? We know the condition does not discriminate, Caroline Flack, Alexander McQueen, Kate Spade, all shocking and desperately sad losses. Frankie Bridge, Alistair Campbell and our Royal Princes, all critical high-profile ambassadors.
Not to deflect from obligations of the welfare state, a recent report from Mental Health First Aid England states 1 in 4 people have had no welfare check in from their employer since the start of the pandemic, and a third never spoken to their line manager about their health. Many organisations have provisioned for self-care, but what about collective care and corporate responsibility? Stress and isolation too easily lead to anxiety and depression, and even the most archaic employer can recognise the dip in performance and morale that presents.
Train, coach, mentor, or simply talk, our mental health and wellbeing have to become more central to how we support our people and each other.
Original article and sources:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000vsx6/newsnight-04052021
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/taskforce/imp/mh-dashboard/