Mental health and the UK general election

Abstract

The need for a new approach to tackle mental ill-health at work was outlined in a report published on March 4 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Fit Mind, Fit Job: From Evidence to Practice in Mental Health and Work recommends early intervention and integrated service provision by doctors, employers, teachers, and other front-line staff.With the UK general election on May 7 in mind, Greg Smith and Simon Wessely commented, “Every politician would benefit from thinking more about mental health care and how to improve it”, in their manifesto published in this journal on Feb 28, and discussed in our second #LancetElection Twitter chat on March 5. Reintegration of mental and physical health services across the UK was called for with @OxPsychiatry pointing out that separation has been disastrous. With mental ill health accounting for 23% of the disease burden in the UK, but only getting 13% of the budget, the “institutional bias” against mental health needs to be addressed, added @richardhorton1, quoting Norman Lamb, a Liberal Democrat MP. “Recognition that for many #MentalHealthproblems are chronic; yet services built for acute/recovery model”, pointed out @bdogrunner.The need to get rid of the false dichotomy between physical and mental health care is echoed by Clive Peedell in a podcast for the National Health Action Party in which he summarises his Party's anti-austerity proposals for UK health reform. Other key issues in Smith and Wessely's mental health manifesto include focusing on evidence-based treatment, providing care when illness cannot be treated, reforming mandatory training for mental health staff so that it is pragmatic and useful (abolishing it if it is not), and improving the health of those who work in the NHS. As the UK's biggest employer, the NHS leadership team must do more to promote good mental and physical health in its workforce of almost 1·5 million people. Patients, and in our experience, clinicians, already have mental health high on their list of priorities; politicians and voters need to as well.For more on the Twitter chat see #LancetElection Twitter The need for a new approach to tackle mental ill-health at work was outlined in a report published on March 4 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Fit Mind, Fit Job: From Evidence to Practice in Mental Health and Work recommends early intervention and integrated service provision by doctors, employers, teachers, and other front-line staff. With the UK general election on May 7 in mind, Greg Smith and Simon Wessely commented, “Every politician would benefit from thinking more about mental health care and how to improve it”, in their manifesto published in this journal on Feb 28, and discussed in our second #LancetElection Twitter chat on March 5. Reintegration of mental and physical health services across the UK was called for with @OxPsychiatry pointing out that separation has been disastrous. With mental ill health accounting for 23% of the disease burden in the UK, but only getting 13% of the budget, the “institutional bias” against mental health needs to be addressed, added @richardhorton1, quoting Norman Lamb, a Liberal Democrat MP. “Recognition that for many #MentalHealthproblems are chronic; yet services built for acute/recovery model”, pointed out @bdogrunner. The need to get rid of the false dichotomy between physical and mental health care is echoed by Clive Peedell in a podcast for the National Health Action Party in which he summarises his Party's anti-austerity proposals for UK health reform. Other key issues in Smith and Wessely's mental health manifesto include focusing on evidence-based treatment, providing care when illness cannot be treated, reforming mandatory training for mental health staff so that it is pragmatic and useful (abolishing it if it is not), and improving the health of those who work in the NHS. As the UK's biggest employer, the NHS leadership team must do more to promote good mental and physical health in its workforce of almost 1·5 million people. Patients, and in our experience, clinicians, already have mental health high on their list of priorities; politicians and voters need to as well. For more on the Twitter chat see #LancetElection Twitter For more on the Twitter chat see #LancetElection Twitter For more on the Twitter chat see #LancetElection Twitter Boko Haram insurgency: implications for public healthNigeria has been involved in a 6 year conflict with the group Boko Haram, responsible for many attacks, the most widely reported being the kidnap of 276 school girls in April, 2014. Boko Haram currently controls an area the size of Belgium across three states in northeast Nigeria: Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe. Health indices, such as maternal and child mortality are worst in the northeast region compared with elsewhere in Nigeria.1 The substantial gains Nigeria has made to control polio might be lost if these issues of health care are not urgently addressed in northeast Nigeria. Full-Text PDF