Mental Health The Forgotten Service

Just as shocking was the report I read today that the NHS is failing mental health patients so badly. Having known a number of people with mental health problems personally and worked with others and I these stories shocking.

For to many years the NHS has had a policy of treating mental health patients like cattle. Patching them up with various drugs that just offer respite to the patient while causing weight gain and other medical problems to develop over time. 

The system is not investing in people but effectively investing in drug companies who provide the drugs. The drugs should be a short term measure and what these people deserve is long term solutions that require the minimal use of medication. They never seem to look deep enough into the problems that caused the mental health issues to arise in the first place or look at ways of helping the patients over come them.

What is it not helpful that a few staff members are cynical about the patients conditions.  One comment I heard on the Radio talked about the attitude of some mental health workers to people with personality disorders, who they consider them as time wasters, is unacceptable. This is a condition that effects peoples everyday lives and those around them and it can't be dismissed out of hand. The fact that health trusts are not providing enough cognitive behavioral therapy for this condition and many others is just disgusting. It is a very serious condition that affects the individuals and impacts on their families severely.

Metal heallth care is not some kind of secondary health care, it is a primary service they provide as important as any other. It deserves proper funding by the NHS trusts and the government. What the health system needs to think about is the benefits that can be drawn from using other forms of treatments other than drugs. The more mental health workers talk to people with mental health conditions the better will be their understanding and from that will come better methods and quicker cures to mental health problems.

There are specialist units around the UK that do some of amazing work but in the current funding climate it not clear if they we will carry on the good work they are doing. 

Dedicated staff are working in a climate of under funding and increasing work loads. Currently the system is poorly resourced and staff must fear for their own positions as money is directed out of mental health services into other parts of the NHS. It is time that the government ring fenced some of the funding to the NHS to mental health services. This should then backed up by careful monitoring to ensure that the money is being spent where it is meant to be sent and not used to fund other health care.

People with mental health issues deserve the best treatment there is, provided by the NHS, in order for them to have fulfilling lives without being made to feel worthless and unimportant. The need of menta'l health patients matter as much as anyone elses, they can't be marginalized like this.