scholarly journals Mental health and poverty in the UK – time for change?

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jed Boardman ◽  
Nisha Dogra ◽  
Peter Hindley

Poverty and income inequality have increased in the UK since the 1970s. Poverty and mental ill-health are closely associated and disadvantage can have long-term consequences. In addition, the recent recession and austerity measures have had a detrimental effect on people with mental health problems and the mental health of the population. Mental health services can play a role in addressing the problems of poverty and inequality.

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Skuse

In the UK, only 13% of people with long-term mental health problems are in employment, compared with 35% generally of people with a disability (Royal College of General Practitioners, 2005). Nearly 2.6 million individuals receive incapacity benefit and/or severe disability allowance and, of these, close to 1 million are claiming incapacity benefit due to mental ill health. The management of this enormous number of people – providing support to them and helping them get back into employment – is an issue that cannot be addressed adequately by our specialist mental health services. Accordingly, other models of service delivery need to be considered. The three thematic papers in this issue look at this issue from the perspective of three highly contrasting societies.


2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Dickens ◽  
Judy Weleminsky ◽  
Yetunde Onifade ◽  
Philip Sugarman

Aims and methodMental Health Recovery Star is a multifaceted 10-item outcomes measure and key-working tool that has been widely adopted by service providers in the UK. We aimed to explore its factorial validity, internal consistency and responsiveness. Recovery Star readings were conducted twice with 203 working-age adults with moderate to severe mental health problems attending a range of mental health services, and a third time with 113 of these individuals.ResultsMental Health Recovery Star had high internal consistency and appeared to measure an underlying recovery-oriented construct. Results supported a valid two-factor structure which explained 48% of variance in Recovery Star ratings data. Two Recovery Star items (‘relationships’ and ‘addictive behaviour’) did not load onto either factor. There was good statistically significant item responsiveness, and no obvious item redundancy. Data for a small number of variables were not normally distributed and the implications of this are discussed.Clinical implicationsRecovery Star has been received enthusiastically by both mental health service providers and service users. This study provides further evidence for its adoption in recovery-focused mental health services and indicates that items relating to addictive behaviour, responsibilities and work could be further developed in future.


2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Timimi

SummaryIn 2007 the UK Government announced a substantial expansion of funding for psychological therapies for those presenting with common mental health problems. This ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies’ (IAPT) project was widely welcomed, however, evidence backed, economic, and conceptual critiques were voiced from the start and the project remains controversial. In 2011, the UK government announced it was extending the IAPT project to encompass services for children and young people with the aim of ‘transforming’ the way mental health services are delivered to them. Here I critically reflect on the problems associated first with IAPT and then with CYP-IAPT and ponder whether CYP-IAPT is significantly different to the problematic adult IAPT project or more of the same.


2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Tang

Background: The recent interest in recovery from mental health problems has not meaningfully addressed the perspectives of ethnic minorities. Aim: To contribute to the discussion of recovery-oriented service with a study on the experience of Chinese people using UK mental health services. Methods: In-depth life history interviews were carried out with the users. The qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Four themes emerged as hindrances to personal recovery: (1) language difficulty creates hurdles, (2) diagnostic label is experienced as a double-edged sword, (3) treatment-related stigma and (dis)empowerment are identified, and (4) grievances are found in hospitalisation. Discussion: Having mental illness and being an ethnic minority in the UK experienced double hazard in their recovery journey. While the deprivation of agency and the stigma process in the health care system hinders their recovery, they are further disadvantaged by their ethnic minority status. Four pointers for service improvement, that apply to Chinese users in the United Kingdom and have general implications for users beyond this group, are proposed.


BJPsych Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabella Pacchiarotti ◽  
Gerard Anmella ◽  
Giovanna Fico ◽  
Norma Verdolini ◽  
Eduard Vieta

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has and will have a huge impact on mental health, especially in countries that have been significantly affected, such as Spain. Aims Here we aim to provide the perspectives of a group of psychiatrists from Barcelona, one of the epicentres of the pandemic so far, to highlight the potential fatality of a virus that caught us unaware and unprepared, and hopefully this article will be of aid to countries about to face the pandemic. Results The unprecedented situations that we have been faced with so far have included reconfiguring hospitals and the redeployment of healthcare professionals, with flexibility and adaptability key to managing the overload in demand. This has led to healthcare professionals being exposed to extremely stressful situations and they have had impossible decisions to make that may have mental health consequences, some of which may be severe and long lasting. Conclusions A rebound effect on mental health problems is to be expected in the medium and long term, especially for healthcare professionals and psychiatric patients, necessitating a strengthening of preventive approaches and policies for mental health along with a prompt reopening of mental health services. Ways to provide psychiatric healthcare in the immediate future need to be re-evaluated, and the development of telepsychiatry services is probably to be expected.


BJGP Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. bjgpopen20X101075
Author(s):  
Alice Kate Lambert ◽  
Alison Jayne Doherty ◽  
Neil Wilson ◽  
Umesh Chauhan ◽  
Dushyanthan Mahadevan

BackgroundGP satisfaction with specialist Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is often reported as low in the UK, and internationally.AimTo explore GP perceptions of local children’s mental health services and to understand their experiences of a novel GP-attached Primary Mental Health Worker (PMHW) service.Design & settingQualitative research involving GPs in Pennine Lancashire.MethodSemi-structured face-to-face interviews of GPs (n = 9) were carried out. Thematic analysis was undertaken.ResultsThemes identified included: 1) The role of the GP: most GPs perceived their role to be signposting and referring patients with mental health issues to specialist services, rather than offering care directly; 2) Clarity on help available: GPs were unclear about specialist CAMHS referral criteria and alternative resources available. GPs experienced communication challenges with specialist CAMHS; 3) Getting advice and support: PMHWs enabled GPs to have informal discussions, and to seek advice about children. Some GPs felt they could recognise problems earlier and were able to access help more quickly; and 4) Development needs: some GPs felt they required increased training in supporting children with mental health problems, and identified a need for further collaboration with schools and specialist CAMHS.ConclusionThe study identified challenges that GPs face with accessing and utilising specialist CAMHS. GPs who had PMHWs based in their practices expressed increased satisfaction with these services. GP-attached PMHWs can potentially reduce the challenges faced by GPs in primary care by offering timely and accessible advice, and improving access to specialist CAMHS.


2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 292-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swaran P. Singh ◽  
Navina Evans ◽  
Lester Sireling ◽  
Helen Stuart

Adolescents with mental health problems are poorly served by mental health services, since responsibility for care often falls between child and adult services. Within the UK, there is no consensus on how service boundaries should be delineated. Some services use an age cut-off at some point between 16 and 18 years, whereas others consider child services to be appropriate only for those in full-time education. The Audit Commission (1999) reported that nationally 29% of health authorities commissioned child and adolescent mental health services for young people before their 16th birthday only, although adult services were not considered suitable for those under 17 years old. The report highlighted the poor development of adolescent services and their inadequate links with other agencies, including adult mental health services.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 242-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Éva Kállay

Abstract. The last several decades have witnessed a substantial increase in the number of individuals suffering from both diagnosable and subsyndromal mental health problems. Consequently, the development of cost-effective treatment methods, accessible to large populations suffering from different forms of mental health problems, became imperative. A very promising intervention is the method of expressive writing (EW), which may be used in both clinically diagnosable cases and subthreshold symptomatology. This method, in which people express their feelings and thoughts related to stressful situations in writing, has been found to improve participants’ long-term psychological, physiological, behavioral, and social functioning. Based on a thorough analysis and synthesis of the published literature (also including most recent meta-analyses), the present paper presents the expressive writing method, its short- and long-term, intra-and interpersonal effects, different situations and conditions in which it has been proven to be effective, the most important mechanisms implied in the process of recovery, advantages, disadvantages, and possible pitfalls of the method, as well as variants of the original technique and future research directions.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document