‘WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT ?’ AN ILLNESS IGNORED

According to recent government figures,   mental illness costs up £105 billion per year, with £30 billion work related,  and  70 million working days are lost to mental illness annually.  There is a temptation to switch off when figures are mentioned but the impact mental illness has on society cannot be under-estimated and should not be ignored any longer.

So, given the impact mental illness has on UK business, I am at a loss to understand the nation’s collective lack of interest.  Usually we only tend to read about mental illness when our newspapers feature the problems of a celebrity, normally when they have a book or film to promote.  It is also somewhat ironic that in times of economic crisis, the demand for mental health services increases and yet funding and donations drop.

The great British public never fails to be generous in supporting a good cause, so the lack of support for mental health organisations is not about compassion fatigue.  Previous governments and organisations such as Time to Change have spent considerable sums of money over the years trying to change people’s attitudes, raise awareness, and challenge stigma, but the question has to be asked ‘has it worked?’.

Over the past few years my organisation has written to over fifty major companies all with a good reputation for their generosity in charitable giving, and nearly all of them send the same reply, and some are identical although two years apart,

It amounts to “we take our corporate responsibility seriously, but we can’t hope to match the demand upon our charitable funds, so we have decided to focus on sick children, cancer etc. ..”

all of which of course are very worthy causes and nobody would begrudge the support they attract.  There is however a debate to be had about the changing role of some of the U.K.’s leading charities, a number of whom have become service providers, which many would say is the role of the Government and statutory providers, not withstanding David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’.

With the funds available decreasing at an alarming rate, it is becoming increasingly difficult for small front line organisations, often run by people who suffer from the condition their cause represents to compete for financial aid.

This problem is magnified when it comes to mental illness, considering this cause receives far less support than sick animals, overseas aid, and most other physical health problems,  less than 1% of all individual charitable giving is donated to the mental health sector, I’ll say that again, less than 1%, and you have to wonder if companies and society in general understands that young people and the elderly can experience mental illness too.

Even our much maligned highly paid footballers, many of whom actually do some fantastic work in helping many good causes, fail to understand the impact that mental illness has within their own age group.   It is rather ironic that thousands of young men in this country commit suicide, the very  people  that fill the terraces of our football clubs every week, and yet,  neither  the footballers or the football authorities do enough to support the fight against mental illness.

The sad fact is that mental illness is neither a fashionable or cuddly cause.  Most of us never give it a thought until we experience it, and then, those who are fortunate enough, if any experience can be described as fortunate, to only have one episode, generally are so traumatised they don’t ever want to think of it again.

It is a fair bet that companies lose more days in sickness absence with their employees suffering mental health problems than any physical health issue, to say nothing of the negative effect in lost productivity.  Of course both corporate organisations and the public must be free to choose the causes they wish to support, but the abject misery brought about by mental illness cannot be ignored any longer.

Given all of this, the problem is compounded still further by the fact that the mental health charities are dependent upon 80/90% of their funding coming from the statutory sector which we all know is now making massive cuts.  So is it really too much to ask for society generally   (companies and politicians included) to perhaps give a second thought when making their donation choices. 

The lack of funding support and public apathy are not the only problem we have when trying to combat mental illness.  An equally devastating threat is the coalition government’s massive and radical changes to the way our health services are provided.  Again, you cannot help but wonder just how wise it is to allow a politician who may only be in power a comparatively short time,  to come along and make such major changes to a much loved, cherished and well-established  institution as the NHS.

Those of us who experience mental health problems may well suffer badly as a result of the proposed changes, particularly the ones around GP’s being responsible for 80% of the NHS budget.  There is alarmingly an increasing amount of anecdotal evidence that many G.P.’s do not see mental illness as a priority and nor are they ever likely to.  Even many doctors themselves have expressed their concerns over the new arrangements.

This is by the way, not an attack on GP’s,  but the fact is that Mental Illness is complicated.  It’s a specialist subject requiring years of training, and it would be unfair and unreasonable to expect your average GP to have the required expertise to deal with all of its complexities.  Furthermore, GP’s trained to be doctors, not accountants.  It is bad enough that their relationship with patients will change significantly when they have to choose where their funds are spent but the problem is compounded when they are to deal with patients experiencing severe mental distress.  Trust me, I have personal experience and I have spoken to thousands of people both health service professionals and service users over the years.

So, mental illness affects 1 in 4 of the population, costs up to  £105 billion per year, £30 billion of which is work related,  and 70 million days are lost to mental illness.   And yet there is little support from the public, its’ impact on industry is not reflected in company charitable giving, and despite this coalition government’s claims of no cuts to services and any efficiency savings to be ploughed back into frontline services, the sad fact is their rhetoric does not match reality.

Mental health services are being cut, and it’s a great shame that the service providers will not come out and say it, presumably  for fear of damaging their careers  or losing their jobs, which is understandable.

By the time you read this article I will  have embarked on a long distance walk around the country in an effort to find out What’s It All About, but perhaps the nation’s apathy towards mental illness is represented perfectly by the M.P.’s who I have invited to join me briefly on my journey.  I guess they reflect the public’s attitude perfectly in that around 60 % of them have totally ignored me.

If the country’s policy makers don’t care then WHO DOES,  if not us, WHO, if not now, WHEN ?

Tony Russell – Director of Breakthrough Mental Health