Patients with mental health problems are being denied a basic level of care, according to the Mental Health Foundation. The claim is included in a highly critical response to a report from the UK’s Healthcare Commission into Community Mental Health Services.
As the British media frenzy continues about “dangerous foreign criminals” released from prison but not deported, I wonder what the furore says about us as a society. It seems to me to say something significant, because I haven’t heard a single news report about the “dangerous British criminals” who have also been released from prison after serving their time.
While unemployment rates are monitored regularly and play a crucial role in shaping government monetary policy, the hidden economic impact of depression and anxiety may be just as significant: it turns out that more people receive government benefits as a result of severe depression and anxiety than receive benefits for being unemployed. Experts are urging the government to fund 200 new treatment centres to offer psychological therapy to those affected.
The authors of a two-year inquiry, backed by the Mental Health Foundation and the Camelot Foundation, have called on the UK Government to launch a national initiative to develop better and more appropriate responses to young people who self-harm, starting with an awareness campaign targeted at professionals, parents and young people.
The Pentagon is encouraging troops returning home from Iraq to seek counselling, and more than a third of U.S. soldiers received psychological counselling soon after returning from Iraq, according to a Pentagon study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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