The widespread hypocrisy on mental health

‘Mental health awareness’ is actually obscuring true mental illness

   ‘She’s like the cancer of the ward that needs to be cut out.’ So spoke a nurse in the Edenfield Centre in Prestwich, near Manchester,  one of the UK's biggest mental health hospitals, as exposed by an undercover reporter working for BBC Panorama. ‘C***!’, ‘Bitch!’, ‘troublemaker’, ‘idiot’  . . . the staff’s appalling, cruel language was more than matched by their appalling, cruel physical actions. Patients were assaulted, mentally tortured, their needs totally disregarded and at times isolated in a bare locked room for weeks or even months on end. Watching someone really ill be even denied one of their cuddly toys for a grain of comfort is soul destroying. It’s also impossible to square this disgusting abuse of some of society’s most vulnerable people with the relentless media campaigns for ‘mental health awareness’ fronted by glossy celebrities ‘bravely’ sharing own their ‘mental health struggles’. In 2019 Prince Harry did a video with Ed Sheeran for World Mental Health day. In that he said mental health ‘is a subject and a conversation that’s not talked about enough.’ Indeed he barely stops talking about he need for ‘mental health awareness’. Yet strangely enough I’ve not heard him or Ed speak out about the appalling treatment of the truly mentally ill in this country. Indeed I’ve not heard a single celebrity who sees themselves as a ‘mental health ambassador’ or who has shared their own ‘mental health story’ react to the BBC Panorama documentary. Perhaps that’s partly because it challenges their other source of woke PR brownie points, worshipping the NHS. No doubt they will have ranted about its supposed underfunding but not gone near criticising the way it’s run or indeed the bad attitude of too many of its medical staff.

  Life for most people with a mental illness is in a different world to that of glossy TV studios and luxury mansions. I’ve needed ongoing psychiatric and psychological treatment my whole adult life, which has meant countless trips to run down, grimy bungalows at the back of a inner city carpark for appointments. Going to a mental healthcare hub or centre often feels like an ordeal to be overcome in itself. But it’s not just a problem of a detachment of the privileged from ordinary people but a severing of the popular concept of ‘mental health’ from the reality of actual illness. Ed Sheeran recently did a small concert at Union Chapel in London to raise money for Wellstock, an initiative created that aims ‘to build platform to bring mental health awareness to the fore whilst also looking at fundraising and with an overview of acceptance, validation and blowing away the shame that can attach itself to feeling anything other than happy.’ This neatly encapsulates the problem. It feels ridiculous to have to say this but ‘feeling anything other than happy’ is normal and doesn’t require a medical label. Society’s relatively new obsession with ‘mental health’ has nothing whatsoever to do with mental illness. It has however everything to do with a pampered sense of entitlement, sadly prevalent in the younger generations, that one has the right to be shielded from negative emotions and indeed a right to constant happiness. I’d love Will, Ed and Harry to visit an NHS mental health inpatient unit and talk to the people there. Chaps we’d settle for not having some level of mental pain and struggle nearly every minute of every day. Telling me and countless others to ‘reach out’, ‘talk about problems’, go for a run or learn to knit is as pointless as the proverbial chocolate fire guard.

   The mentally ill do not need ‘validation’ they need decent treatment. Why do none of these celebrities educate themselves about mental illness, the newest research and treatments and raise money for those. There is desperate need for quality inpatient units with properly trained and compassionate staff offering individually tailored, holistic care. Furthermore there is almost a complete absence of ‘care in community’ for those of us that need ongoing support to live independent, productive lives. But this would involve serious bravery and effort. People who are truly suffering mental illness are rarely as PR friendly as a group of angst ridden teens talking about ‘body positivity’ or young mums having a coffee morning as part of the latest ‘mental heath initiative.’ They are however often people unable to speak or having aggressive outbursts, psychotic delusions, bleach washed hands or hair that hasn’t been washed for weeks, for example.  #mentalhealthawareness? There’s near zero awareness of or indeed concern for the suffering of the truly mentally ill in this country. We’re hidden behind a wall of veneered celebrity smiles and social media hashtags.