Mental Health in the media
December 2025
Staff in Newham walking out for six weeks this winter to win liveable salary
Dozens of staff that keep a London mental health facility in a fit and proper state are striking from today over a failure by their employer to pay decent wages.
Members of Unite will begin a further two weeks of industrial action from 17 November to 30 November, followed by an additional four-week strike over the Christmas and New Year period, running from 8 December to 5 January. This escalation comes after three previous rounds of industrial action causing disruption for patients, staff and the public over four weeks in September and October.
November 2025
KONP 21/11/25: NHS in crisis – Migrants not to blame | Full meeting
https://youtu.be/cLvaoEtG-sk?si=dUZPSx4yeX4AUgZO
Two more deaths raise alarm over mental health in A&E
By Alison Moore20 November 2025
Two further cases of patients absconding from hospital and taking their own lives have been highlighted at a trust which is being prosecuted for a similar case.
October 2025
Labour is launching a review to decide whether some mental health and neurodivergence issues are being overdiagnosed. The Health Service Journal (HSJ) reports that a highly controversial figure will play a lead role.The review has been ordered by Wes Streeting, secretary of state for health and social care.
According to HSJ (paywall) the chair of the review will be psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist Peter Fonagy.
September 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/sep/18/private-psychology-cost-soaring-uk-turn-away-clients
The cost of seeing private psychologists is soaring and many are so busy they are turning away new clients, research has found. The prices psychologists charge have risen by 34% since 2022 and 12 sessions now cost an average of £1,550, compared with £1,152 just three years ago, according to a survey by myTribe Insurance, which tracks the cost of private medical care. Almost three in 10 (29%) psychologists are already treating so many patients that they are not taking on new ones, according to a survey of practitioners across the UK.
More than 1 billion people are living with mental health disorders, according to new data released by the World Health Organization (WHO), with conditions such as anxiety and depression inflicting immense human and economic tolls. While many countries have bolstered their mental health policies and programmes, greater investment and action are needed globally to scale up services to protect and promote people’s mental health.
https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/mind-responds-to-annual-mental-health-act-statistics/
Shameful racial inequities show human cost of inaction on mental health.
Annual figures for detentions under the Mental Health Act in England, covering April 2024 to March 2025, have today been published by the NHS.
August 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/aug/09/how-one-mother-lost-her-daughter-to-mental-illness
‘I had her right in front of me. And now she’s gone’: how one mother lost her daughter to mental illness
June 2025
https://news.sky.com/video/an-aande-ward-in-midst-of-a-mental-health-crisis-13378857
An A&E ward in midst of a mental health crisis
Bodycam footage worn by hospital security staff shows patients in a mental health crisis on a busy A&E ward. You can watch the full report on the Sky News Youtube Channel.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jun/06/stress-crisis-uk-financial-health-housing-insecurity
‘Stress crisis’ in UK as 5m struggle with financial, health and housing insecurity
Exclusive: Levels of ‘multi-stress’ at highest since 2008 crash, study says, with people feeling profoundly powerless
‘No smartphones before 14; no social media until 16’: The Anxious Generation author on how to fight back against big tech
One year on, Jonathan Haidt talks about the way his book changed the global conversation around children and digital devices – and explains how he handles his own teenagers
https://truthout.org/articles/kaiser-mental-health-workers-win-big-after-long-strike/
The 196-day strike of Kaiser Southern California mental healthcare workers is over. The 2,400 therapists, psychiatric nurses, social workers and psychologists won significant gains not just for themselves but for their patients in a time of an acute national mental healthcare crisis. They are members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
May 2025
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/HRT.html?soid=1102665899193&aid=isxo1AZ4b_Y
Roy Lilley on the Cinderella Service:
Any announcement by the DH+ should have the prosodic feature of the NHS Question Mark. For instance…‘NHS to roll out specialised mental health accident and emergency centres.’ Terrific, good idea but… like so many DH+ announcements, we know it ain’t gonna happen… so it should have the NHS Question mark…‘NHS to roll out specialised mental health accident and emergency centres?’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjew80w2y1zo
Bereaved families have been traumatised by “distressing and appalling delays” to inquest proceedings, a landmark inquiry heard.
The Lampard Inquiry is examining the deaths of more than 2,000 mental health patients who died under NHS care in Essex between 2000 and 2023.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2lzlnwjzxno
A former health ombudsman has condemned mental health services for their handling of two vulnerable young men who died in their care.
Sir Rob Behrens, who was parliamentary and health service ombudsman (PHSO) from 2017 to 2024, spoke at the Lampard Inquiry, which is examining the deaths of more than 2,000 people under mental health services in Essex over a 24-year period.
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/ai-to-predict-healthcare-needs
An artificial intelligence (AI) model is being trained on a set of NHS data for 57 million people in England, from which personal information has been stripped away. The pilot study is being run by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London and University College London (UCL). The model could transform patient care, identifying opportunities where early interventions might significantly improve or save lives.
April 2025
https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2025/april/mental-health-bill-third-reading/
Members of the House of Lords ‘tidied up’ the Mental Health Bill at third reading on Wednesday 23 April.
The Mental Health Bill seeks to amend the Mental Health Act 1983. Changes proposed in the bill include:
- Tightening the detention criteria in the 1983 Act and providing for more frequent reviews
- Limiting the period that people with autism or a learning disability can be detained
- Removing prisons and police stations as ‘places of safety’ in the Act.
Scotland: Pupils with mental health issues increase almost 600% in decade, figures show
A massive increase in additional support needs in Scotland means more than 40% of all pupils now require extra help in the nation’s schools.
March 2025
Happiest country in the world revealed – and one where a stranger’s most likely to return a lost wallet. (UK and USA 23rd and 24th on the list)
Believing in the kindness of strangers also had a much bigger impact on happiness than previously thought.
https://keepournhspublic.com/labours-austerity-budget-our-response/
Other than repeated claims to be ‘on the side of working people’ Rachel Reeve’s Spring Budget statement sounded more like a Conservative chancellor’s speech than a Labour Party committed to ‘ending the status quo’.
“Rise in people with mental illness being driven by real societal challenges and lack of available treatment” says RCPsych President
The President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists responds to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting’s comments that mental health conditions are being overdiagnosed.
The rate of patients dying by suicide shortly after discharge from mental health units has increased in recent years, with researchers calling for better post-discharge support.
I have been seeing that therapist for seven years. Committing to that space where I can self-reflect and be challenged has been transformative. Life’s challenges and the pain of my mum’s death are still with me, but I am also excited about my future. I am sure I will stop therapy eventually, but when I do, I will continue not simply to cope but to live, however uncertain a process that might be.
Mental health charities in England are struggling to cope with the number of sick patients referred to them by GPs, with under-qualified professionals increasingly tasked with treating the seriously ill.Experts told the Guardian that some desperate GPs were “signposting” patients to services not always equipped to deal with them.These are provided by unregulated charities, which employ practitioners who are not always transparent about their qualifications or level of competence.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/dwp-benefits-cuts-full-six-31165262
Laboour betrays people with mental health disability: In an interview with ITV News, Liz Kendall expressed her concern about individuals who are “taking the mickey” by claiming benefits when they should be working. She stated that the number of people pretending they can’t work is “not good enough,” and that this needs to stop.
February 2025
RFK’s plan to make America healthy again? Send people with mental health conditions to farms
Campaigners have accused NHS England of “closing ranks” after a mental health trust once deemed the worst performing in the country was removed from special measures.It was confirmed this week that Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is to leave the Recovery Support Programme (RSP) – formerly known as special measures – following a review by NHS England.The NFST’s chief executive, Caroline Donovan, described it as a “milestone in our improvement journey”.But one campaigner compared the move to the NHS Blood Scandal and Post Office inquiry – saying the decision could not be trusted as it was just a public body “marking its own homework”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crr0v2jn78yo
The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) said it had exited the Recovery Support Programme, external that helps failing providers. The decision followed a period of sustained improvement, said NHS England, and the trust’s chair Zoe Billingham said it had “achieved stability”.
However, campaigners for better mental health care have questioned the decision.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c5y7e30dmmpo
Child psychiatric care ‘was more like abuse’
Young women have been telling their stories of years spent on a Scottish adolescent psychiatric ward.
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/health/watchdog-raises-staffing-concerns-north-30953802
Watchdog raises staffing concerns at North East mental health crisis services
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxe7vy9291o
Reform Councillor says mental health is the new bad back; “there’s now a sick note culture in the UK where people are choosing it as a career path.Everybody knows if you go to your GP and say, ‘I’ve got anxiety and depression’, you’ll be signed off and get benefits for it.”
January 2025
Everyday stress is being wrongly labelled as mental health issues, say majority of GPs. Most doctors think normal reactions to life’s stresses and strains are being mistakenly seen as medical problems, poll shows
https://www.ft.com/content/9642e988-686f-494d-8244-e6fb2cf0ae5d
NHS mental health and dementia targets axed in planned overhaul Campaigners warn changes send message that conditions do not matter
As a child psychiatrist, I see what smartphones are doing to kids’ mental health – and it’s terrifying. Emily Sehmer
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/05/compassion-fatigue-in-the-nhs-or-burnout
Doctors aren’t exhausted by their patients’ suffering, but by the poorly managed and overdemanding care systems in which they work, says Prof Paul Gilbert
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gp19n111vo
Child mental health crisis: Better resilience is the solution, say experts
December 2024
Care Beyond Beds – Centre for Mental Health
EXPLORING ALTERNATIVES TO HOSPITAL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH CARE
ANNA ISKANDER-REYNOLDS, JULIA DOYLE, ANDY BELL, DAVID WOODHEAD AND FREDERICO CARDOSO
Inpatient care should be part of a holistic system of support that seeks to provide care in a mental health crisis quickly, compassionately, and close to home. But too often, it is characterised by coercion and restriction in environments that risk re-traumatising patients rather than helping them to recover.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sVcexTb1VdEahxOM-6NJ0TXQYGD44Y4h/view
Islington North People’s Forum: Mental Health. “This people’s forum is about identifying the factors which are contributing to poor mental health, what we can do as a community to understand and support people who need help. The forum included presentations about the services available in Islington North and discussion on how we can lobby decision makers to reform state functions so there is more understanding, compassion and moreover more funding for mental health services.“
Mental health charity Oxfordshire Mind has criticised the government over potential plans to scrap a healthcare policy framework.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyxjmmr3njo
Mental Health workers strike in Manchester: “Hundreds of patients feel they have been “abandoned” because the resources are not there to care for them properly, it has been claimed.It comes as a group of employees at Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust are again striking this week to protest what they say is a lack of funding and support.They say some people with severe long term illnesses being looked after in the community are stuck on long waiting lists and not getting the help they need.”
November 2024
https://www.nhsconfed.org/publications/mental-health-bill-2024
Mental health bill 2024: what you need to know. Summary and analysis of the government manifesto commitment to modernise mental health legislation to give patients greater choice.
A blind woman with complex disabilities was refused benefits because she managed to travel to the interview with her mother’s help, she has told The Observer.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78d02zm3yno
Police will no longer be able to hold people who are being detained for mental-health reasons in police cells, under government plans for England and Wales.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78d02zm3yno
Police will no longer be able to hold people who are being detained for mental-health reasons in police cells, under government plans for England and Wales.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/11/06/climate-change-fuelling-mental-health-crisis/
Growing awareness of climate emergency causing ‘psychological distress’, warns UK health agency
https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/what-the-budget-means-for-mental-health/
The Budget showed glimmers of hope for mental health, but it’s really a bit of a mixed picture overall. Addressing the mental health crisis will be critical to achieving the UK government’s health and growth missions. Unfortunately, yesterday’s budget didn’t deliver the scale of change needed to truly deliver on those missions and create a mentally healthier nation.
October 2024
https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/chancellor-must-not-proceed-wca-cuts-says-dr-uk
In the 30 October Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave no indication that the Government will not bring forward reforms to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) delivering savings from the inherited plans of the previous administration.
‘Disturbing’ disability benefit reforms in Labour’s budget could see hundreds of thousands denied help
These measures will not affect current claimants, but they will impact those applying for the first time from next year, and anyone who comes off the benefit and then later reapplies for it or whose circumstances change
September 2024
Mental health has overtaken cancer and obesity as the health problem most Britons worry about, a global survey has revealed. Experts said the shift in the public’s perception reflected the sharp rise in recent years in mental ill-health caused by the Covid pandemic, the cost of living crisis and male violence against women.
https://twitter.com/donatedparts/status/1836885852577829090?s=61&t=hdApLHQlRQYpusC0b5u0WA
https://twitter.com/mad_in_america/status/1837120182357041460?s=61&t=hdApLHQlRQYpusC0b5u0WA
A child spent more than a month ‘stuck in a room with the lights on’ in an accident and emergency department, a trust has revealed. The child waited 44 days, while another child spent more than 11 days in the emergency department while waiting for a local authority placement, according to Matthew Trainer, CEO of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospital. Both had mental health needs and/or learning disabilities
Starmer tells NHS it will get ‘no more money without reform’
Let me be clear from the outset what reform does not mean first – it does not mean abandoning those founding ideas of a public service, publicly funded, free at the point of use, the basic principle of dignity, inspired, of course, by Bevan that when you fall ill, you should never have to worry about the bill.
Starmer says reform “does not mean just putting more money in now,”.A Labour government will always invest in the NHS, he says. But, he goes on: We have to fix the plumbing before turning on the taps.So hear me when I say this – no more money without reform.I’m not prepared to see even more of your money spent on agency staff who cost £5,000 a shift, on appointment letters which arrive after the appointment, or on paying for people to be stuck in hospital just because they can’t get the care they need in the community.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4glndwx4ngo
A charity representing bereaved families has told an inquiry of “abject failures” by the Essex trust which provides mental health services in the county.
The Lampard Inquiry is looking into more than 2,000 mental health-related deaths which occurred in Essex between 2000 and 2023.Speaking on behalf of the charity Inquest, Lily Lewis told the inquiry it was “staggering” that authorities had not been able to provide an accurate number of deaths.Ms Lewis added that there was an “evident toxicity of the culture” in mental health in Essex.
Up to 12 people may have died after mental health staff in east London failed to properly monitor them, according to an official report.
August 2024
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021zn9
Panorama: The Nottingham Attacks: A Search for Answers
In June 2023, Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates were stabbed to death by Valdo Calocane. Reporter Navtej Johal investigates his history of mental ill health and the care he received.
July 2024
There is a new ‘professional, managerial class’ running the party, and it has a complex relationship with the working class
Thousands of children’s lives are being blighted by shocking delays to NHScare of up to three years, according to a report that warns a “forgotten generation” will suffer long-term harm as a result. The health service is struggling to cope with rapidly rising demand for increasingly complex and acute care needs among children and young people, the research by NHS Providers shows.
For children with ADHD, getting the help they need depends on being correctly diagnosed. As a doctor, I have seen how tricky and frustrating a process that can be By Jack Goulder
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/safe-haven-bothy-ashington-mental-29524094
Hundreds of people have taken advantage of a new mental health service in Northumberland in the three months since it opened. A so-called safe haven known as the Bothy opened on April 1 this year, operated by Newcastle-based organisation Everyturn Mental Health. It provides support for anyone experiencing mental health crisis of distress in the county, and is open from 2pm to 10pm, 365 days a year – and does not require a GP referral.
June 2024
As psychiatrists, we condemn the ways in which mental health services have deteriorated over the past decade
How much easier it is to blame phones and social media than to acknowledge the harm we do by taking away creative outlets in school such as art, music or sport, and focusing only on targets and rote learning. And how much easier it is not to take responsibility for fixing the other aspects of their lives that bring anxiety: the climate crisis; the lack of affordable housing; the cost of living crisis. Smartphones are a distraction from the real issue facing adolescents – they are fearful for their futures.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c044ryjk158o
An inquiry looking into mental health deaths in Essex will begin hearing evidence on 9 September. The Lampard Inquiry will investigate the deaths of more than 2,000 patients in the care of NHS trusts in Essex between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2023. Evidence will be heard in public in Essex and live-streamed online over a three-week period.
May 2024
‘Money pervades everything’: the psychotherapist delving into our deep anxiety about finances
The number of patients stuck in NHS mental health units in England despite being clinically ready to leave has reached its highest level in at least eight years.
NHS Digital has today published its monthly mental health services dataset for March 2024. The statistics provide the most up-to-date insight into a range of mental health services. Key findings include:
- 1,521,324 million adults and 541,230 children were in contact with mental health services at the end of March
- 21,527 people were subject to the Mental Health Act – a five-year high
- 825 inappropriate Out of Area Placements were active – a five-year high (February 2024 data)
- 33,800 urgent adult referrals to crisis care teams
- 4,073 under 18 urgent referrals to crisis care teams – a five-year high
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd11g7jz92ro
Panic attacks, anxiety, and problems with mental health are among the reasons given by children who avoid going to school, amid a rise in absenteeism in Wales. Figures show 40% of secondary school pupils in Wales, external missed, on average, an afternoon a week of the past school year.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ggzpvn2r1o
A senior police officer has insisted his force was not “washing its hands” of people in need of mental health support. On Wednesday, Norfolk Police introduced a controversial initiative called Right Care, Right Person (RCRP), external, which would see officers respond to fewer mental health-related calls.
More than 40,000 people with mental health problems are being supported back into employment thanks to an NHS programme, new data shows.
The bulk of NHS mental health hospital care has been privatised and Cygnet is a major player in the business. This is far from the first time it has been found taking the money for poor services.
April 2024
Children aged 16 to 17 are entering care in greater numbers than any other age group, often with complex needs, and experts say many councils in England now have nowhere to put them. They are increasingly resorting to budget hotels, with no adult support, as a way of cutting costs and keeping teenagers off the streets.
Behind the movement that brought homosexuality — and psychiatry’s power — to a vote 50 years ago
A Yale historian argues in a new book that postwar psychiatrists had pathologized homosexuality to legitimize and hold on to their raw yet fading political power.
Thirty organisations, including leading mental health charities and bereaved families’ organisations, have called on the UK Covid-19 Inquiry to focus on the mental health effects of the pandemic.In an open letter published on 10 April the charity Mind questioned why the inquiry had decided not to prioritise mental health in its third module, which is looking at the government’s response to covid-19, and the impact of the pandemic on healthcare systems, patients, and health staff. Public hearings for this module are due to start in September.
https://www.channel4.com/news/connor-sparrowhawk-neglect-at-nhs-unit-contributed-to-death
Connor Sparrowhawk: neglect at NHS unit contributed to death. A teenager with learning disabilities and epilepsy who drowned in a bath at an NHS unit had been neglected, an inquest jury has ruled.
https://lowdownnhs.info/mental-health/mental-health-services-breaking-down-under-pressure
New research commissioned by the NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network shows the cost of mental ill health for England was a staggering £300 billion in 2022.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/nhs-mental-health-deaths-leak-b2526944.html
Patients ‘begging’ for help as leak reveals thousands die under community mental health services Exclusive: NHS figures leaked by whistleblower suggest more than 15,000 patients died in care of community mental health services in just one year – with desperate families forced to ‘beg’ for treatment from overstretched medical teams
___________________________
‘Work is good for mental health’: Sunak bats off criticism as he seeks to end ‘sick note culture’
Rishi Sunak pledges to remove benefits for people not taking jobs after 12 months. The prime minister announces a raft of reforms to the welfare system as he insists it “must change”. But Labour lays the blame at the government’s handling of the NHS, leaving people “locked out” of work.
UK government can no longer bury its head in the sand on mental health – Mind reacts to Centre for Mental Health report
Mind has reacted to the Centre for Mental Health’s latest report showing the social and economic costs of mental health are now £300 billion, up from £119 billion in 2020 and £77 billion in 2003.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-68785590
A public inquiry into the deaths of mental health patients in Essex has been expanded. Investigators were initially due to examine cases dated between 2000 and 2020, but deaths up until 31 December last year will now be included. Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins said “we will ensure lessons are learned”. The government published the inquiry’s “terms of reference” on Wednesday. The Lampard Inquiry is examining deaths of inpatients being cared for by the NHS in the county, including by the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) which was set up in 2017.
I’ve fallen in love with a metaphor that gives me a balm for some of this. Writer Charles Foster says that true sceptical science embraces mystery. It is, he says, prismatic. “It takes a prism to show that white light is anything but white: that it’s composed of many colours.” If we’re to overcome our mental health crisis, we need to think prismatically. We need to resist simplifications and be inspired by the certainty that we are missing some richer shades of complexity on the side of the prism we can’t see.
The Freedom to Die by Michael Shellenberger.
A new book sheds light on our monstrous treatment of the mentally ill.
March 2024
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/nhs-nurse-mental-health-care-b2518096.html
A senior mental health nurse suffered “degrading and humiliating” treatment while she languished for 10 days on an unsuitable NHS ward during a mental health crisis, The Independent has been told. Rachel Luby, 36, was admitted to Basildon Hospital A&E in Essex on 5 January this year after attempting to take an overdose of over-the-counter medicine following a traumatic assault. This, she claimed, was the start of weeks of horrific care she endured while waiting for a mental health bed. It culminated in her being restrained and forced into a caged van “like an animal”.
Israel Lobbyists Tried to Cancel an Event on Mental Health and Palestine
Psychoanalysis has a problem with Palestine. So the Freud Museum’s decision to let an anti-Zionist event go ahead – despite threats to its reputation – is important.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/31/doctor-nhs-psychiatric-care-brother-death
A consultant neurologist whose brother died after a series of failures by an NHS mental health trust has warned that there will be more avoidable deaths without fundamental reform of psychiatric care. Dr Katie Sidle’s concerns about the refusal of Norfolk and Suffolk foundation trust (NSFT) to give her brother Christopher, who was psychotic, a crisis admission were repeatedly ignored in the days and weeks before his death last July, a coroner found this month.
Mental illness costs England £300bn a year, equivalent to nearly double its NHS budget, according to research. Researchers for the Centre for Mental Health thinktank analysed the economic, health and care impact of mental ill health, as well as human costs from reduced quality of life and wellbeing. The report, commissioned by the NHS Confederation’s mental health network, calculated that in 2022, mental illness cost £130bn in human costs, £110bn in economic costs and £60bn in health and care costs.
“To add material insult to injury for those of us who experience mental health problems, in the same interview, the minister unveiled a new and dangerous plan to push 150,000 people with “mild” conditions back into work. It’s really very good for our wellbeing, he argued.”
While I’m grateful for today’s much more open approach to mental health, there is a danger that this has gone too far.
There is a real risk now that we are labelling the normal ups and downs of human life as medical conditions which then actually serve to hold people back and, ultimately, drive up the benefit bill …
If they go to the doctor and say ‘I’m feeling rather down and bluesy’, the doctor will give them on average about seven minutes and then, on 94% of occasions, they will be signed off as not fit to carry out any work whatsoever.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-68607551
A campaigner in Norfolk says the “deaths crisis” at the county’s mental health trust is getting worse. Bereaved relatives met the mental health minister, Maria Caulfield, to discuss failings at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT).
According to official data published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), at least 20,000 incapacity benefit claims are for mental health problems – making up more than two-thirds of the total. (14/3/24)
People with serious mental health needs are also a major revenue stream for the companies variously owned by private equity funds and US healthcare corporations, which operate hundreds of inpatient mental health facilities in the UK.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/self-harm-incidents-more-double-9164586
Prison monitors have asked the Government to consider treating women prisoners with complex mental health needs in secure hospitals rather than in prisons after a damning report into a women’s prison near Bristol. (14/3/24)
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk-second-most-miserable-country-in-the-world
The UK landed 70th out of 71 for overall mental wellbeing, earning an average score of 49, classifying the UK as enduring – comparatively low compared to the average global score of 65.
The report found that UK mental wellbeing levels in 2023 had not recovered from pre-pandemic levels, according to researchers at the US-based Sapien Labs think tank.
35 per cent of respondents in the UK said they were struggling with their wellbeing.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/08/matthew-caseby-priory-healthcare-group-fined
The Priory healthcare group has been fined more than £650,000 over the death of a 23-year-old patient who was hit by a train after absconding from a mental health hospital.
Matthew Caseby, a personal trainer, was able to leave Birmingham’s Priory hospital Woodbourne by scaling a wall after being “inappropriately unattended” for several minutes in September 2020, an inquest jury ruled in 2022.
February 2024
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68399392
According to the report, young people now have the poorest mental health of any age group – a reversal from two decades ago when they had the lowest incidence of common mental disorders.
https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/society-s-failings-and-the-nhs-s-struggle-to-cope
‘When we (society) make people mentally unwell, we do not have the staffing, funding or physical space to enable them to become well again.’
“It’s broken”
Doctors’ experiences on the frontline of a failing mental healthcare system. 23/2/2024
The BMA has carried out in-depth interviews with doctors across the mental health system, including those working in psychiatry, general practice, emergency medicine, and public health. We wanted to explore their experiences of providing mental healthcare, including what helps and hinders them in providing good care to patients, how things have changed in the time they have worked in the NHS, and their thoughts on how the challenges identified are impacting on patient care and experience. Interviews with doctors were supplemented by discussions with key stakeholders, including patients and charities.
The interviewees characterised the state of the failing healthcare system that we hear about daily from our wider membership. Doctors told us that mental healthcare is under huge pressure and they are unable to provide the care that patients need and that they want to provide.
Good mental health is essential to a functioning society. Mental illness carries a huge cost to individuals, society, and the health and social care system. Without the appropriate treatment or support, mental illness can lead to lost productivity and the need for informal care; mental ill health has been estimated to cost around £118 billion annually to the UK economy, and nearly £101 billion in England alone, equivalent to roughly 5% of the UK’s GDP. Mental health problems and poor mental health can also influence all aspects of a person’s life and relationships, often causing huge anguish to individuals, families, and communities.
The mental health workforce has become less experienced, while roles have expanded unevenly across the sector, research has revealed. 21/2/24
Mon 19 Feb 7.19pm • ITV News has filmed inside a secure psychiatric hospital, as the government faces calls to do more to fund struggling mental health services.
‘Love is our first medicine’: treating mental health in Cameroon’s unique refuge Among the homeless people of Yaoundé, many are mentally ill and have been rejected by their families. Le Village de L’amour offers them therapy – and hope
The number of children referred to emergency mental healthcare in England has soared by more than 50% in three years, according to data laying bare the impact of lengthy waiting lists for regular NHS treatment.
More than 24,000 children and young people with mental health problems are waiting nearly two years to be seen by community mental health services, an analysis of data by the publication HSJ has found.
Instead of being an isolated exception, research suggests that such privacy violations are too common within the vast industry of mental health apps, which includes virtual therapy services, mood trackers, mental fitness coaches, digitised forms of cognitive behavioural therapy and chatbots.
Leave a comment