‘Public Health’ at Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life, Page 4

A damning report from leading ‘neoliberal’ think tank the Centre for Policy Studies takes the UK government to task for being more interested in managing the problem of illicit drug use in prisons than in eradicating it. The problem, according to the report, is that no one in authority understands the prison drugs market.

A new Mind report relates a shocking catalogue of harassment, assault, victimisation and discrimination against those who suffer from mental health problems in England and Wales. This leads me to wonder about therapeutic treatment for people who are so discriminated against — when someone is factually being persecuted in their own home, where does paranoia begin?

First it was a problem supposedly only for gay men, drug users, and the promiscuous, then for Eastern Europeans and Africans, and now it is women who are said to bear the brunt of the virus and be the ones who should empower themselves and stop the virus in its tracks. Women taking responsibility for men’s behaviour. Sound familiar?

In response to the recent publication of World Health Organisation research into depression in The Lancet, the UK’s Mental Health Foundation calls attention to the cost to the economy of mental health problems: some 30 billion pounds in direct costs, and nearly 100 billion pounds when other social and health factors are included.

British MPs today begin debating what some have described as a truly draconian Mental Health Bill. Once hailed for its potential to pave the way for a more modern approach to mental health in the United Kingdom, the bill — some 9 years in the making — is now strongly opposed by the Mental Health Alliance, a coalition of 80 organisations representing doctors, nurses, social workers, people with mental illness and their families.