WHO Report - leading mental health charity RETHINK responds

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Friday, 10, Oct 2008 12:00

In response to the WHO report claiming that English mental health services are among the best in Europe, Paul Jenkins, Chief Executive of the mental health charity RETHINK said:

“Measuring your progress on mental health services in England by looking at other countries with different systems is like comparing London Transport to buses in Calcutta; it doesn’t really tell us much about how our own progress. It’s far more helpful to compare our record on mental health with our progress on physical health. And when you do that, you realise mental health is lagging way behind.

Someone with cancer will have ten times as much spent on their treatment and care as somebody with a mental health condition. It’s brilliant that services like cancer care have come so far, but we need to see the same type of investment in mental health.

The evidence is clear – mental health wards are shabbier and more overcrowded and waiting lists for mental health treatment are often longer. But the overwhelming difference is that illnesses like cancer are no longer the subject of stigma, while mental illnesses most certainly are. Nine out of ten people with a mental health condition say they are affected by stigma every day, including when they seek support from health services.

We have come a long way since the bad old days of asylums, but when we look at the health system in the country as a whole, it’s clear that mental health is still the second class service, with a long way to go”.

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Hilary Caprani

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Rethink

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