A mentally healthier nation
In my last blog post I wrote about Britain’s ‘Polycrisis’ and its inevitable effects on our nation’s health. Shortly after, at the end of September 2023, the Centre for Mental Health launched a major new report that acknowledges that the social economic and political factors making up this polycrisis have resulted in increased rates of mental ill-health in the UK. The report outlines the causes and the knock-on effects of these increased rates.
The report, A Mentally Healthier Nation - Towards a ten-year, cross-government plan for better prevention, represents the combined efforts of many of the UK’s largest organisations that have an interest in mental health to outline a plan to address the mental health of the nation. The aim is to support a campaign for these policies to be adapted as part of a 10-year cross-government health strategy.
The approach that drives the plans consists of three main pillars: Prevention, Equality and Support. Importantly, the proposals put forward in the report are not restricted to measures to improve our health and social services. They also include a public mental health approach that addresses the causes of mental ill-health alongside measures to reduce inequalities and to reform the social security and criminal justice systems. Inevitably, the report calls for improvements to be made to services for people with mental ill-health and a thoroughgoing update to the current Mental Health Implementation Plan to cover the five years from 2024 as well as measures to close the parity gap.
One thing that makes this document attractive for the future improvement of our nation’s mental health is its combination of an ‘evidence-based approach’ with a set of crucial values that recognise the corrosive effects of inequality on individual and population health. It complements other important reports on health inequities and the social determinants of people’s health and life expectancy, such as those produced by the Marmot team. It chillingly reminds us that the life expectancy of people with severe mental illness is in the region of 20 years shorter than that of the general population.
The report makes an important point:
“…we cannot become a healthier, more equitable and productive nation without better mental health for us all.”
This reinforces the point that ‘mental health matters’. It provides a hopeful blueprint for the future which should form a central part of social policy and strategy for future governments. We at Careif are proud to endorse the document and to add our name to the growing list of supporters.
References
A Mentally Healthier Nation. Towards a ten-year, cross-government plan for better prevention, equality and support. 2023. The Centre for Mental Health.
Marmot, M., et al. (2010) Fair Society, Healthy Lives: The Marmot Review. London: Institute of Health Equity.
Marmot, M, et al (2020) Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On. London: Institute of Health Equity.
