It would be safe to say that the UK does not see itself as a happy country. Any attempt at displaying authentic enthusiasm or innocent joy would be soon quashed by an onslaught of wry sarcasm, and a singular grey cloud that hangs in the place of a sky. However, this tongue-in-cheek perception of the country is increasingly becoming a concerning reality. The numbers of adults and children in contact with mental health services are reaching worrying figures, given many are not able to receive the help they need, and are left with no place left to turn.
A quick look at the headline figures detailing the UK’s mental health crisis paint a picture of a country unprepared to deal with this unprecedented social phenomenon. Mind, a mental health charity, revealed that from 2022-23 alone, over 17,000 reports of serious incidents were reported to medical staff across the country. Incidents included self-harm, psychosis, and eating disorders, many of which led to shortened life expectancy and long-term physical harm, with some being near-fatal.
Whilst a greater number of individuals are in contact with mental health services, these services have been wholly incapable of keeping up with desperate demand. As the number of people seeking mental health support has increased 354% in the last 8 years, mental health professionals in the NHS have only seen an 18% increase, making the ratio of patients to doctors 15,000 medical professionals short of being sustainable. As an understaffed system works overtime to treat vulnerable patients, many are made to wait for over 50 hours in A&E before being seen, or worse, before being referred to acute hospitals without the expertise to treat their symptoms.
Even a situation as widespread as this, however, does not burden everybody the same. Repeatedly, we see poverty and financial insecurity as the primary causes of many common anxieties.
Younger people too, are increasingly bolstering the mental health statistics, with many of those in the supposed prime of their life suffering long-term health problems associated with their mental state. Worryingly, inactivity of those aged 18-24, in education, employment or training, rose to the highest figures on record in February 2024, with this increase primarily reflecting a rise in long-term health problems in younger people. As the number of inactive people (16-24) rises by 28%, due to long term sickness compared with 2022, 1 in 5 suffer from a mental health condition.
As employment and education become the primary divisor between those inactive, and those able to secure a sustainable salary, women have seen relative success. As their university attendance rates far exceed those of men across developed countries and in the UK, men who are, “outside the economy”, potentially under-educated, have seen their incomes plummet, and more than 80% report long-term health problems.
At this point, it is important to highlight how some mental health figures are collected, and how this might impede a complete understanding of the problem. Often, mental health disorders are diagnosed through self-reporting by the patient in the form of questionnaires. A misunderstanding of one’s own symptoms, or the influence of social media glamourisation, may skew results, especially when advice and information online about mental health is so prevalent. On a broader level, cultural definitions of what qualifies as a mental health disorder have been widening, lowering the threshold of what is now considered a mental condition, and partly inflating figures on widespread mental affliction. As more people seek help with relatively minor problems, those on the more life-threatening end of the mental health spectrum struggle to find the help they urgently need.
This fact makes a conversation around the mental health crisis in the UK very complex. Medical definitions of mental health disorders are constantly developing, and a complete understanding of the ‘most complex object in the universe’ borders on the impossible. This fact however, should not call action into question, but bring it forth with courage and conviction.
Whether inflated or not, the National Health Service is caving under the mental strain of a global pandemic, cost of living crisis, and widespread economic dejection. Greater funding, staffing, and increases in wages may help the NHS cope with the people that turn up at its door without further recourse. By extension, greater investment in mental health professionals may help alleviate the issue of mental health inflation, giving doctors and nurses more breathing room to engage with patients and accurately diagnose their symptoms. Similarly, out-of-work support for unemployed victims of long-term health problems may help them make a recovery and return to work.
It is evident however, that this problem is a symptom of a larger systemic issue with the UK. Tackling the mental health crisis will require tackling the economic hardship at its core. Incidentally, given its cost of £117 billion per year, the UK’s mental health has become a sticking point for the Treasury’s goals of economic growth and public debt reduction as a proportion of GDP. ‘It will get worse before it gets better’ need not just apply to the lives of ordinary people, but to the public purse as well. Solving an issue of this magnitude will require tenacity and resilience. It is not something that can simply be ignored. The government must invest in the future if it ever hopes to see it.
Image: Wikimedia Commons/Rigos101
No image changes made.
Comments