Introduction to my 95 Theses on the NHS mental health system
Out of love for the truth and from desire to elucidate it
There isn’t an easy solution to the “mental health crisis” in the UK. There isn’t a panacea available to make it go away, but I do believe we can make changes that will help improve outcomes for people who are called mentally ill.
There are different beliefs about mental illness, in general, but the most common view among people under seventy is that medical experts have a good understanding of people’s problems and have effective solutions for helping them manage or resolve those difficulties.
Private healthcare is available to those who can afford it, though even people who can afford it often don’t pursue that. I don’t know about private healthcare in the UK because I have no experience of it.
If people seek treatment through the NHS there is one choice. Your GP will make a referral to your local community mental health team, there you will be assessed and maybe given treatment, though many don’t get a referral or treatment.
The system tries to get rid of people as soon as possible, and to do as little as possible for them in that time. If the mental health team can do one assessment and discharge you with a piece of paper with coping techniques on, they will. After an initial assessment you might see a doctor, get a diagnosis, receive the official treatment for that diagnosis (most likely therapy and/or drugs) and then you will be discharged. They don’t discharge you based on your needs, or the risk you pose to yourself or others, which is the official protocol. This is a key reason many people have a diagnosed mental illness but are not functional members of society, they are not getting their needs met and have no relevant support.
The system is chiefly bureaucratic and receives funding to treat conditions, not people. If they have diagnosed you with something and can justify on paper that they have treated you for the diagnosed condition, they will discharge you.
There appears to be no one officially governing the legitimate efficacy of the system. It is obvious that outcomes are poor, and yet because they can prove on paper that they’ve done what they can for someone, the actual wellbeing of the individual is not taken into account.
The common response to explain their behaviour tends to be that the system is ineffective because of lack of funding. I disagree. I would argue that the system is ineffective because it doesn’t work, so they are actually overfunded. Why bother financing a circular, ineffective bureaucracy which contributes massively to low quality of life for vast quantities of people, and costs the government a fortune through benefits claims, housing and medical facilities?
The system that’s in place is only necessary because there aren’t alternatives, but as it doesn’t work, the NHS mental health system as we know it needs to be gradually defunded, and the money redistributed, so we can come up with multiple alternative options for people to pursue.
The current, ineffective and cruel system goes some way to explain the mental health crisis in the country. People focus on attitudes of those who are called mentally ill, or the wider societal context, both are good and necessary things to recognise, but not enough people are scrutinising the mental health system itself, which is the only option many have for a solution to their present troubles.
The whole, largely state-run, social care system is necessary due to a lack of alternatives, but it is cruel, ineffective and degrading to the people who it pretends to help.
There is no one treated more appallingly in the mental health system than those who grow up in care, especially if they’ve been abused, and have no other supports. These poor people are trapped from their youth, when they are very vulnerable and in need of close attention and love. The intention of official bodies or individuals working in these systems is not to trap people but, as that is often what happens, I’m using the language of truth and consequence, not unfounded intention.
These systems of social welfare are the workhouses of the 21st Century. A tyrannical bureaucracy which presents itself as a moralistic martyr taking on people no one else is providing for, but which simultaneously exploits their vulnerability and deprives them of their humanity.
I’ve said the mental health system doesn’t work, and I should back that up, because it will get people’s backs up. More importantly, it would be an unjust claim if it were untrue, so I will put forward my arguments for the veracity of my position, and if you don’t agree then please let me know why, because I am interested to hear different perspectives.
What I am going to say about mental illness is heretical. I will be denying the dogma of our deluded, modernist society, which has lazily capitulated to the post-industrial age’s overly materialistic explanations of our humanity. Like Martin Luther, when he understandably objected to legitimate abuses happening in the upper echelons of the Catholic Church, I will be outlining my 95 theses against the mental health system in a series of posts, because cathedral doors don’t get the footfall they used to.