Mental health – now that’s gone a bit trendy hasn’t it?
It’s a subject that produces a lot of words, and while one of the main messages is that it is vital those suffering are empowered to talk about how they feel, many still tend to remain silent while politicians, professionals and practitioners command the microphones and the newspaper columns.
Of course ‘mental health’ is a massive subject, covering a spectrum that ranges from ‘feeling a bit down’ to a dark journey, void of companions and hope. As a result addressing the subject is always done with a broad brush, so broad the aim is diluted to simply re-avowing the need to end the stigma attached to mental health issues … without actually doing it.
There’s no doubting the sincerity and ambition of all the action days, campaigns and policy recommendations from all the groups involved in mental health, just as there is little to fault in the Scottish Government’s Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027, but will anyone notice a dramatic change?
Recently the Prime Minister, during one of his briefings, highlighted the extra funding south of the border going into mental health support. Stressing how this would make a massive difference to so many lives, De Pfeffel Johnson then added that, of course, the option was always there to just telephone the NHS.
While Scotland’s health service is devolved, the fact is you can pick up the phone no matter where you are in the UK and, metaphorically, you’ll be on the line for months, if not years, waiting for mental health support.
De Pfeffel Johnson is recognised and accepted as being economical with the truth, being more inclined to share his personal delusion of how things are rather than deal with the reality. The fact is mental health support from the very top has been woeful, because you can get away with it. Suicide, self-harm, emotional and psychological collapse are seen as personal tragedies, with each one meriting nothing more than lip service … and more pledges.
It is maybe the Slav in me but I always believed that highlighting society's injustices comes from grass-root agitation, That’s maybe the Eastern European way, it may even be the global way, but it is definitely not the British way. In fact the proposed new Policing Bill is directly aimed at curbing those grass-root protests and while there are those, mainly on the left of the political spectrum, who might howl about the dangers of such measures, the rest probably see this as a sensible way to deal with perceived rabid anarchists determined to destroy our ‘civilised’ way of life.
So, who do we, as a nation, look to to highlight those injustices and failings in society? Our champions are not the banner-waving crowd from below but from above.
And in the area of mental health who is now in the vanguard? The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle.
Thanks to her interview with Oprah Winfrey, the issues of mental health and suicide, became headline news, captivating, and, to a degree, dividing a nation, if not the world.
In terms of producing a reaction among ordinary folk, being imprisoned by privilege is more of an issue than being imprisoned by poverty. Denied support by the Royal family’s medical and administrative staff, is more horrific than waiting months for a call from a beleaguered NHS team. Being banned from meeting with your friends for lunch is more outrageous than being unable to leave your inner city flat for months on end. The mental anguish caused at being asked the likely colour of your baby’s skin, the lack of a title and the public funding of your security is, apparently, more understandable than simply wondering if you have enough money to feed your child … and how to stop it crying.
All that maybe sounds like I believe the plight of the Duchess is more fanciful than the reality of the social deprivation hundreds of thousands of people suffer and which contributes to their mental health issues.
I don’t mean that at all.
There is no class or financial boundaries around inner turmoil. I genuinely hope the Duchess is now receiving the help and support she needs, but I also hope her frank admissions now spur the British public, and those that govern, to consider that if mental health issues and thoughts of suicide can permeate the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, then we need to be looking seriously at those who don’t have a voice or will ever command a headline.
The Samaritans have published their ‘manifesto’ for the Scottish election in May, outlining ‘Six priorities to help save lives’. While every politician will no doubt agree with its objectives, the voter is likely to be driven by other considerations.
As someone identified as suffering from PTSD, anxiety and depression, I’m angry at the situation I find myself in. When you are in a health-required two-person bubble for six months and more, you will end up spending around 20 hours a day on your own. I have met people, terminally ill, who are alone 24 hours a day, with the only break coming from medical appointments.
This is happening across the country, but deprivation, isolation, money and employment worries, depression and everything else that impacts on the human psyche, is crushing those who may be physically well.
This is not down to human frailty or any personal weakness, they are casualties of the system we have chosen, where self before community is the order of the day.
Yet we can be outraged over one family’s behaviour behind palace walls, but remain emotionless over the suicide of someone in our midst who feels lost, broken and unable to cope. That is a terrible indictment of what we see as normal and relevant.
The Duchess of Sussex, and just before her interview, the captivity of Princess Latifa of Dubai, became symbols that illustrated no matter your station in life, everyone has a breaking point.
Surely now it is time to cascade that compassion down to those who have been waiting silently for the support that never comes?
Picture: Manfred Antranias Zimmer
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