It appears that the government have finally woken up to to true horrors of living with a mental illness. Despite years of soft waffle and vague promises nothing has ever actually been achieved. But now David Cameron has decreed that a focus needs to be placed on mental health and bring it's funding in line with money allocated to 'physical health'http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35565216 .
Personally I think that it needs to go further than merely bring mental health funding in line, the government need to help the NHS urgently bring in treatment to try and fix those lives shattered by mental illness. To put this in perspective £9.2bn a year is spent on mental health care, that's less than a 10th of the NHS budget bearing in mind that one in 4 people will experience a mental health problem. When the figures are laid bare like that it's impossible not to feel disgust.
For years the ruling powers have blustered about equality for those suffering from a mental illness and ending mental health stigma, yet nothing seems to have actually been done. It's taken two charities, Mind (http://www.mind.org.uk/) & Rethink (https://www.rethink.org/), to merge together to form the Time To Change (http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/) campaign to end mental health stigma. Surely something that the government should have tackled as part of their 'Big Society' dream?
Has the campaign worked? I'm in two minds. When I first became aware of it back in 2008/9 I hadn't ever really encountered stigma when I'd divulged that I was depressed to people. It wasn't until a couple of years ago during 'memory-stickgate' at my old job when the people who I'd trusted with the knowledge of my illness then used it against me, claiming that I was a 'danger to the service' because it may have caused me to make more mistakes.
I think that what I'd call 'mainstream' (and this is in no way belittling the illnesses as I know the hell they can cause) conditions such as Depression and Anxiety and to some extent OCD & Bipolar are far more accepted and there is actually a fair bit of knowledge amongst the general public about what the conditions entail. I know that when I've debated explaining my Borderline Personality Disorder to work colleagues or people I know outside of my family and close friends I'm almost passed it off, saying "it's a bit like Bipolar" to make life easier. They are obviously two very different conditions but telling someone you have a fairly well-known and understood condition vs one that makes you sound like a freak about to attack them with a knife? There's no contest really!
I've blogged before about the lack of services availible in my area for mentally ill people, part of this government drive promises more funding for treatment & therapies. I really hope they use this as an oppourtunity to investigate specialised treatments rather than just pumping funds into one size fits all CBT & Mindfullness, currently the mental health buzzwords. There are a lot of people, myself included, who these just don't work for, but there are so many other therapies in existence that would make a real difference to people's ability to cope. I for one would love the chance to receive a therapy tailored to my needs rather than being left by the wayside as I don't fit a specific teatment model. Put it this way if someone didn't have a positive response to a particular pain killer would they be told nothing more could be done for them? No! They would be tried on different medications until the right one was found! Why can't the same be done for us?
To my mind (no pun intended) mental health equality means not only being placed on a par with physical health in importance and funding but with effort being made to make sure that everybody, regardless of their condition is given an oppourtunity to receive treatment and support that's right for them.
Love Jen
XxxX
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