Economic cost of crumbling mental health is clear

Most prevalent condition of those who are off work with long-term sickness is depression or anxiety

‘Big public sector cuts have worsened the crisis, particularly after Covid and cost of living crises’

The stiff upper lip comes from the heyday of the British Empire, psychologist Phillip Hodson once told this newspaper. You could only hold on to vast possessions, he explained, by pretending that you were “somehow superior, immune to the weaknesses of the rabble and the masses”. Like the Empire, the stiff upper lip is outdated – a view of Britain as a repressed and unemotional nation.

We have certainly become better at talking about our emotions. But an obsession with stoicism remains and it is damaging. Increasingly, the way we feel – which can too often be dismissed as a fluffy, touchy-feely subject – directly impacts the economy.

Britain has just fallen into recession at a time when rising sickness means that millions are economically inactive. There are now 9.25m people aged between 16 and 64 who are neither working or looking for work. A record 2.8m have dropped out of the jobs market because of their health. That partly comes down to an increase in the number of older workers, who are more likely to be unwell, but the rise has also been driven by a sharp increase in mental ill-health across generations. Official statistics last year revealed that the most prevalent health condition among those not working because of long-term sickness was depression or anxiety.

The Health Foundation think tank says mental illness has increased more than four-fold among 16 to 34-year-olds over the past decade. People in this age group are now as likely to report a work-limiting condition as someone aged 45 to 54 did 10 years ago. More people than ever now receive NHS mental health support, with five million patients needing care in 2022-23 – a million more compared with five years ago.

This is a significant problem for the Government, which has done itself no favours by overlooking a nation in distress for too long. Not enough has been done to stop people from reaching a desperate place.

NHS bosses have warned that mental healthcare in England has become a national emergency, with enormous waiting lists and concerns that people only get help when they have reached crisis point.

The charity Mind last year revealed that more than one-in-three British adults have no confidence that a loved one would be safe if they needed hospital mental healthcare.

Long-awaited plans for reform of the outdated Mental Health Act, which was a key Conservative manifesto commitment in 2017 and 2019, were excluded from the King’s Speech last year and so will not be passed before the general election. The Government launched a discussion paper and call for evidence to inform a 10-year plan for mental health in England in 2022, but this has since been scrapped as a standalone strategy (bundling it in with physical health allows for “more joined-up thinking” in treatment, a Government spokesman said).

The Government has increased its spending on NHS mental health services, introduced a new suicide prevention strategy, published plans to set up early support hubs and bring in more NHS mental health staff. But it is evidently too little too late.

An NHS psychiatrist says those in crisis are waiting several days for a bed and are often discharged too early, meaning there can be high readmission rates. GPS have such little time with patients that it’s “almost impossible” to assess and treat them properly given the complexity of cases, with many issues stemming from “financial challenges, housing issues, lack of social support and lack of community provisions”. People with anxiety and depression can then wait many months before accessing any sort of support.

Drastic public sector cuts have worsened Britain’s mental health crisis, particularly following the pandemic and amid cost of living pressures. Researchers at Liverpool University last year concluded that local authority cuts to cultural, environmental and planning services such as parks and libraries are associated with more people experiencing poor mental health, a point that they argued was often “minimised” in wider discussions about public sector cuts. In the past decade, around 800 libraries and almost 800 playgrounds have closed across the country. A coalition of charities and think tanks last year urged ministers to think more widely when it comes to improving the nation’s worsening mental health, taking more action against junk food, smoking, alcohol and gambling, ending “hostile environment” immigration policies and doing more to tackle child poverty.

Ministers are starting to talk more openly about their own struggles with mental health. Tory MP Elliot Colburn, who earlier this month revealed in an emotional House of Commons speech that he tried to take his own life in 2021, acknowledged that there is “a lot of work that needs to be done” on mental health services.

Members were seen tapping him on the shoulder in support, with Rishi Sunak saying the issue is being taken “incredibly seriously”.

The Government is trying to tackle the problem but it is at crisis point and needs to be taken much more seriously. Now the country has plunged into a recession, urgent action is needed. Unemployment can worsen symptoms of anxiety and depression, creating a vicious cycle for those who feel they have been unnecessarily written off from the workforce. People who need help for non-physical problems should not feel forgotten. The economic cost of ignoring those in need is huge.