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The sad fact is there is basically no mental health service in the UK at all. The UK could be dealing with this and giving people in need appropriate care but l

The sad fact is there is basically no mental health service in the UK at all. The UK could be dealing with this and giving people in need appropriate care but lack of access to care has been a consistent theme for a decade. It is critically underfunded like everything else in the NHS and barely works even if people do get seen. In a functioning society the government would have anticipated the increased pressure that all this would have on people, especially loosing their jobs due economic impacts, and ensured there was an appropriate safety net. That didn't happen and it just adds to the despair. Many mentioned money worries, not a surprise given the economic havoc this pandemic is delivering. It isn't just about lockdown or not, there is a whole range of options on how to do all of this and right now the UK government has chosen a lot of bad ways for bad reasons and left a lot of people with no hope. The mental health crisis in the UK has been worsening for a long time now and this is just another log on the fire.

mjbeswick 6y ago
Mental health services in my area are really good although I know that isn't that case nationwide. Sure the NHS could provide better services if they had more money, but that has to be paid for by someone, somehow. The obvious way would be to increase taxes, but the government won't to that as it's political suicide to do so. Just like the financial help that people expect from the government due the COVID crisis; everyone wants the government to spend more, with little thought on how they are supposed to fund that spending.
yadco 6y ago
Throwing more money at the NHS won't solve the problem. Having a free market solution (where you can go somewhere else if you are not happy) will.
- DanBC 6y ago
  Private mental health hospitals are common in England. They're usually terrible. (Winterbourne View, Whorlton Hall, St Andrews: all private providers).
DanBC 6y ago
There's a recently announced £1.2bn funding for community MH services, to be delivered in a way that's less focussed on diagnosis and more on need. There's strong regional variation in English MH services. This is because of the free market changes introduced by the Lansley reforms. We're struggling to move away from those in a way that doesn't destroy the NHS. All the work around ICSs and STPs should help a bit, especially if NHSE+I start to devolve some of the specialist commissioning budget to local services.

mjbeswick 6y ago

Mental health services in my area are really good although I know that isn't that case nationwide. Sure the NHS could provide better services if they had more money, but that has to be paid for by someone, somehow. The obvious way would be to increase taxes, but the government won't to that as it's political suicide to do so. Just like the financial help that people expect from the government due the COVID crisis; everyone wants the government to spend more, with little thought on how they are supposed to fund that spending.

yadco 6y ago

Throwing more money at the NHS won't solve the problem. Having a free market solution (where you can go somewhere else if you are not happy) will.

DanBC 6y ago
Private mental health hospitals are common in England. They're usually terrible. (Winterbourne View, Whorlton Hall, St Andrews: all private providers).

DanBC 6y ago

There's a recently announced £1.2bn funding for community MH services, to be delivered in a way that's less focussed on diagnosis and more on need. There's strong regional variation in English MH services. This is because of the free market changes introduced by the Lansley reforms. We're struggling to move away from those in a way that doesn't destroy the NHS. All the work around ICSs and STPs should help a bit, especially if NHSE+I start to devolve some of the specialist commissioning budget to local services.