Mark Rowland
On 18 September, The Telegraph published an article by Annabel Denham titled “The mental health con is bankrupting Britain”. This is our letter to the editor in response.
Dear Editor,
We are writing in response to Annabel Denham’s article of 17 September titled “The mental health con is bankrupting Britain,” in which the author ponders why Britain “ranks second to last in mental health”, and blames a “mental health con” for convincing people they are unwell. The Mental Health Foundation takes a different view.
Firstly, while a report did suggest Brits report lower levels of mental wellbeing than other countries, these problems are not new – they are simply more identifiable today.
In recent years, efforts were undertaken across British society – including The Daily Telegraph – to destigmatise mental health. Raising your mental health with your GP or counsellor is no longer a thing of shame. Instead of people suffering in silence, they learn to understand their feelings and may receive a diagnosis.
When you run a campaign to encourage people to seek help for a problem, it’s unsurprising when more people are identified with that problem. Britain is on a journey to destigmatise mental health, and so of course we will see diagnoses increase.
Secondly, the author blames these diagnoses for Britain’s out-of-work population increasing. We too are concerned that many people are so unwell they can’t work.
But blaming medical professionals for diagnosing recognised conditions, as opposed to questioning why more people are struggling with their mental health, is preposterous. When your roof leaks, you don’t blame the plumber for telling you your pipes have burst.
Instead, to explain increasing incidences of mental health problems we must look to the determinants of poor mental health. Poverty, isolation, and being unable to access proper treatment all play huge roles in fostering mental health problems. In recent years, we have seen a cost-of-living crisis devastating people’s finances, a brutal pandemic, new technologies like social media that many are struggling to navigate, and mental health waiting lists ballooning to nearly 2 million. Spending on preventing poor mental health remains a pittance.
Britain is not unique in struggling with these factors – the World Happiness and Global Stress reports show a rise in distress across the world, and particularly in the US and across Europe.
We won’t sweep this issue under the rug and blame diagnoses for the problem itself. We, like the author, want to support people with mental health problems to feel better. But we can’t achieve this without fundamental reform to the way we do that – accessible and effective mental health support, work that works for the individual, and more robust financial support for the very worst off.
Regards,
Mark Rowland
Chief Executive Officer
The Mental Health Foundation