Just because you cannot see a physical impairment or an obvious problem with someone’s everyday behaviour, that does not mean they are not suffering from a serious illness. Mental health affects around a quarter of the population each year and ranges from depression to schizophrenia. These illnesses are most common amongst young people, meaning that all of us are likely to know someone suffering from one, even if we are unaware of it.
So why has this government made major cuts to mental health services? According to the Royal College of Nursing, since 2010, there are 3,300 fewer nurses who specialise in mental health, and 1,500 fewer beds, while demand has increased by 30 per cent. After serious progress towards recognising the legitimacy of mental illnesses in recent times, it seems we are now going backwards. Of course, money is tight at the moment, but personally I condemn the cuts to the NHS by a government that has clearly misplaced its priorities.
Perhaps because mental illnesses come from within, the government is under the not uncommon misconception that those suffering with a mental illness should ‘just try harder’. It’s difficult to see how this could be more insulting. Imagine you were suffering from a fatal disease, and when you went to the doctor about it, they told you that you just need to change your outlook, put some effort in, and pick yourself up. Just like mental health, it simply does not work like that.
We often forget that physical and mental illnesses sometimes go hand in hand. A serious mental illness could lead someone to cause physical harm to themselves or others. A serious physical problem could cause a mental illness such as anxiety or depression. It is thus irresponsible of the government to put mental illness on the bottom shelf while claiming it is doing otherwise.
How does this happen? With more than half of local councils in England having to cut or freeze budgets for mental health services between 2014 and 2015, over 80 per cent of GPs are concerned that they cannot manage, believing things to have dramatically deteriorated over the last year. Indeed, in the last two years, there have been seven suicides and a homicide, partially due to a lack of psychiatric beds. One in five family doctors has witnessed a patient come to harm because they were unable to get specialist help in time.
One of the most appalling repercussions of these cuts is that nurses are being forced to prioritise patient’s safety instead of their treatment. This can only exacerbate the suffering of patients and add to the costs of eventually treating them.
What is more, some mentally ill patients have to be held in police cells due to a lack of beds and resources in the NHS. They do not deserve to be incarcerated; they have not committed a crime and are in urgent need of help and care.
Despite the government’s assurances that mental health would be given increased attention, their promises have thus far proved empty. Indeed, NHS England decided to cut mental health expenditure by 1.8 per cent last year. With the NHS not even making David Cameron’s top six priorities for the upcoming general election, it is an increasing worry that we could face another five years of severe cuts to mental health services.
This is an urgent matter. It takes a lot, firstly, for someone to admit to their mental illness, and then to seek help for it. An inefficient and unreliable mental health sector serves merely to increase that burden unjustly.
