The NHS and mental health

[Hope]

An interesting newspaper review on this morning's BBC Breakfast show highlighted the fact that some 40% of the NHS's workload is mental health-related, but only 6% of its budget is.  The reviewer pointed out that whilst research and treatment of cancer and other conditions are having billions poured into them, mental health ain't.  Is it because society regard it as a a non-illness?  Perhaps the medical profession do?  Is the NHS really to blame for the situation (as the newspaper - Mail on Sunday? - suggests)

[Shaker]

An interesting newspaper review on this morning's BBC Breakfast show highlighted the fact that some 40% of the NHS's workload is mental health-related, but only 6% of its budget is.  The reviewer pointed out that whilst research and treatment of cancer and other conditions are having billions poured into them, mental health ain't. Is it because society regard it as a a non-illness?

Pretty much, yes. Apart from the florid psychosis of schizophrenia or mania, most mental illness is invisible, and society tends to treat the invisible and non-existent as synonymous.

[Hope]

Pretty much, yes. Apart from the florid psychosis of schizophrenia or mania, most mental illness is invisible, and society tends to treat the invisible and non-existent as synonymous.

So, the NHS is, or isn't, to blame for the problem?

[Shaker]

So, the NHS is, or isn't, to blame for the problem?

Partly, not wholly.

[Hope]

Partly, not wholly.

Nice cop-out answer 

[Shaker]

Nice cop-out answer 

No, precise answer. No one thing is or can be wholly to blame; to suggest that it is would be to adopt a sort of cartoonish, black and white, unsubtle form of argumentation utterly lacking in nuance and complexity.

[Aruntraveller]

This is not as Shaker says a black and white issue. Whilst undoubtedly more should be spent on Mental Health issues - we have unfortunately, in the case of Mental Health issues, got an outcome driven health service.

If you take for example Cardiac health - this has been transformed over the past 20 years by various interventions , drugs, operations. Perhaps the most impressive of these has been the advent of stenting as an almost regular procedure following MI's or indeed prior to expected cardiac issues in a patient.

These are easily measured outcomes - it is very easy to prove lives have been saved, improved and in some cases transformed by the various techniques available.

With Mental Health issues - there is no such clarity available. You are dealing with a much more  difficult set of criteria to measure against - so the Health Service and also us as a society (it is worth remembering that the NHS and politicians will respond to what they perceive as the publics priorities are in these matters) rightly or wrongly probably channel too little money to mental health services.

How you begin to shift the funding is a tougher question - and one I don't feel upto even beginning to answer.

[Hope]

No, precise answer. No one thing is or can be wholly to blame; to suggest that it is would be to adopt a sort of cartoonish, black and white, unsubtle form of argumentation utterly lacking in nuance and complexity.

I would disagree; if society was as keen on dealing with mental health issues as it seems to be regarding conditions such as cancer and heart disease (two other largely invisible conditions) or more visible conditions like MS and meningitis (none of which are anything other than eminently worthy issues), then it would be being dealt with.  Currently, society doesn't seem to that keen.  Government and the NHS can only reflect society's concerns.

[Shaker]

I would disagree; if society was as keen on dealing with mental health issues as it seems to be regarding conditions such as cancer and heart disease (two other largely invisible conditions)

Largely invisible? I see adverts for research campaigns almost every single day, for cancer especially.

[Rhiannon]

There's still an attitude that many people with mental illness should 'pull themselves together' and unlike other conditions it is a sign of being 'weak and lazy'. Both have been said to me in relation to my own mental health; nobody would say that to someone with a stomach complaint or arthritis. Until attitudes change the government and NHS will still prioritise elsewhere.

[Shaker]

There's still an attitude that many people with mental illness should 'pull themselves together' and unlike other conditions it is a sign of being 'weak and lazy'. Both have been said to me in relation to my own mental health; nobody would say that to someone with a stomach complaint or arthritis. Until attitudes change the government and NHS will still prioritise elsewhere.

The more common mental illnesses - depression; anxiety; phobias; OCD and so forth - can express themselves outwardly predominantly in emotional terms; the belief that you can control your emotions simply by sheer willpower alone remains prevalent. The corollary of this belief, as Rhiannon has said, is that being unable to do so is indicative of weakness and just not trying hard enough.

A great many people talk about cancer in martial, even militaristic terms - cancer is a 'battle' to be 'fought' and people can either 'beat' cancer or 'lose their battle.' You don't often hear people talking about losing the battle against depression (despite the fact that some people who have had both cancer and severe depression are on record as having said that the latter is by far the worst).

[Rhiannon]

Yes, it's massively underestimated just how courageous people who live with severe depression or anxiety often have to be. I've been in awe of some of them.