Skip to main content

Shame on the UK!

I have listed below some bullet points relating to a condition which is not convenient or comfortable for politicians, healthcare chiefs and society to talk about. Can you guess what I'm referring to?


  • It cost the UK 70 million working days last year
  • That figure is up 24% since 2009
  • It costs the economy between £70 and £100 billion per annum in lost productivity, benefit payments and absence from work
  • It causes 28% of illness for the NHS but gets just 13% of the budget
  • Three quarters of those affected receive no treatment
  • Spending on this illness is going down in real terms
  • 50% of affected adults have their first illness by age 15
  • 75% of affected adults have their first illness by age 18
  • 25% of adults suffer some form of this illness all of the time
  • In my medical degree, this illness was granted 7 weeks in 5 years
  • It is not a physical illness so is not thought of in the same way
I hope by now you have guessed what it is because all health begins with mental health - whoever we are!

http://betweendenbighandkeele.blogspot.com/2013/07/mental-health-societys-problem.html

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

We are what we eat?

As we continue to drown under a tsunami of over-regulation, I was horrified to read proposals to regulate the food industry like the tobacco industry.  There is a basic problem in this approach. Regulation only has a limited worth. We have seemingly regulated the way in which MPs claim their expenses. We have also aspired to regulate the banks in the wake of the credit crunch which so nearly brought this country to bankruptcy. The regulation of the tobacco industry is a cautionary tale of what happens when the state attempts to interfere with freedom of choice. For all the regulation and increased taxation, the incidence of new smokers taking up the habit has barely changed. The prevalence of people smoking as a proportion of the population has gradually dropped but not by nearly as much as originally intended. It proves that people will make their own minds up and make their own choices accordingly. The best way to effect a change at the end of the pipeline is to concentrate ou...

Tony Blair - Not fade away?

Notwithstanding the current involvement of Gordon Brown in the current political debate surrounding the Scottish Referendum vote, it is customary for former prime ministers of the United Kingdom to fade gracefully in to the background and make way for the new breed. Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath, Jim Callaghan and Harold Wilson all achieved this simple task without too much fuss. John Major occasionally interjects with an opinion but usually long after the boat has left the harbour. Tony Blair alone seems quite oblivious to this unspoken rule of British political life. An eleventh year leading the country was quite enough for Lady Thatcher when her party dispensed with her services. It seems that Tony Blair can't get enough of power. He is beginning to come across as one of those computer viruses which just won't go away once it has been granted access. We begin to rue the day we ever clicked the "yes" button. The virus invades our entire system and seems ubiquito...

Denbighshire: The county where devolution has gone too far?

Like every other local council in the UK, my local council in Denbighshire has had to contend with significant cuts to it's budget.  Since the heady days of New Labour when "Things can only get better" in an economy being run on the principle of "prudence", the UK public sector has been allowed to swell like one of those marrows being lined up to take first prize in the local agricultural show. The problem is that just like the marrow, an overly large council has to be nursed with kid gloves to ensure it's continued growth. But as with all biological systems, the marrow has a finite size to which it can feasibly grow before nature calls time with a series of intricate molecular triggers. My local council is just like that marrow.  It has now grown to an unsustainable size following years of assisted life support. Figures appear to suggest that my local council has to account for a funding cut of around £8.5 million for 2015/16. If you were running my local...