No early adopter here, these recent testimonies made me finally sit down, brace myself, and watch two significant documentaries of the year, Ian Wright: Home Truths, and Freddie Flintoff: Living with Bulimia. Jolting, provoking, and heart wrenching, two stories honestly told.

I don’t entirely subscribe to mental health conditions being gender based, although some are inevitably gender biased. All humans are susceptible. But I do subscribe to the fact that sociological conditioning makes men less likely to disclose and seek help.  The production of these documentaries highlighted these powerhouses of sporting prowess and achievement can bring authenticity to extremely traumatic and horrendously common experiences and raise critical awareness for the primetime public eye.

The domestic violence that Wright grew up with, witnessing it against his mother, and the physical and psychological control and bullying that he too experienced at the hands of his stepdad was a devastating story to witness. The impact on his older brother as he tried to shield him, in vain. How did it influence his persona on the pitch, a self-confessed unmanageable anger, did it make him one of the best strikers of his generation? Was he fuelled or fenced by this childhood experience? Wright survived, and somehow thrived, but many children don’t.

Flintoff, the best all-rounder in modern cricketing memory, became consumed with bulimia nervosa after a programme of coverage from the tabloid press labelling him fat and unfit, even irresponsible, in his early twenties. Yet as he still smashed sixes and crushed wickets in response, the scars and cycle remain with him now in his forties. Interestingly he began to open up a decade earlier, in his thirties, about depression, but still couldn’t disclose his battle with bulimia. And even now, can seemingly still not bring himself to seek help as he perceives it to be under control, despite a daily battle with food and subsequent excess of exercise. Credit to his own will, he’s found a strategy and balance because he’s had a “lucky” career, rationalises the mental health challenges as a fair cross to bear.

They have each continued to have astounding careers, MBE awarded sportsmen, pundits, presenters, writers, dads, entertainers on dancefloors and in jungles. Powerful, and relatable emblems of what can be overcome and achieved.

We are so proud and fond of our sporting heroes, and so perhaps we can accept them being fallible.

That fallibility needs to continue to be discussed, shared, promoted, and one day, maybe not be seen as fallibility but just human nature, and human nature than can be supported and helped. Ian and Andrew will never be lesser sportsmen, they will only be greater humans.

And still there to watch:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000n1xx/freddie-flintoff-living-with-bulimia

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000vt7g/ian-wright-home-truths

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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.bedfordshirelive.co.uk/news/bedfordshire-news/bedfordshire-police-appear-bbc-newsnight-5375035

https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/taskforce/imp/mh-dashboard/

The post Are we facing a tsunami of mental health problems? appeared first on Sue Hunt.

Home working without doubt has advantages, few miss the grind and cost of the daily commute, productivity is higher, and efficiencies gained tackling work/life admin. Inevitably challenges are posed too; maintaining boundaries of work/life balance of our time and physical space, communication and collaboration must be planned, provision of IT support and office equipment inefficient, and the critical yet complex aspect of mental health and wellbeing has yet to be addressed as a long-term reality.

The impromptu comment at the start of a meeting, coffee machine chat, or gaze out of the window can all be telling indicators of other factors of our lives. Assessing a person’s state of being is infinitely harder on a 2-D screen. The last year has also exposed a critical gap in our focus and investment in physical over mental health.

Investment in our people will need to change, and at every level of seniority. If we assume younger employees may struggle with isolation and the chaos of working in a house share, parents have no separation (or escape!) from the school day routine and may crave the relative calm of an office. Let alone motivation, collaboration, inspiring innovation and maintaining stimulation without the given of human interaction, all circumstances requiring individual investment and care.

Coaching has the possibility to address this range of scenarios, supporting the individual, even as a team intervention to help maintain a sense of collective. Providing a dedicated and safe space for people to talk, recognise and overcome barriers, surface their competencies, focus forward on goals and strategies, and most importantly for the circumstances, build resilience and confidence. All require an individual conversation for the individual to flourish, and a re-setting of and re-investment in personal development after a year of survival.

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