Jasmine Wing listened in to Nick Clegg on the neglect of mental illness.
Earlier this week Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg hosted a radio debate on the ‘pressing issue’ of mental health in the UK.
The Liberal Democrat leader introduced his one-off State of Mind programme by saying that mental health has been ‘a Cinderella service for far too long’.
Only 11 per cent of the National Health Service budget is currently allocated to the Mental Health Department, even though one in four of the UK population is thought to suffer from mental illness at some point during their lives.
Clegg promised to ‘lift the lid’ on this discrepancy.
The hour-long show, aired by London’s LBC station on 2nd March, featured senior clinicians, a chief constable, a leading mental health charity worker and members of the public who phoned in with points and questions. Topics included: wrongful imprisonment of the mentally ill, and the need to raise awareness of mental illness in schools, where one in three pupils is thought to be affected.
Most of the callers and guest speakers were highly critical of the limited treatment currently available to the mentally ill.
The caller who insisted that our attitude towards mental health must change dramatically, was preceded by a lady who had found the NHS ‘very unhelpful’, and complained that she was ‘not taken seriously’.
Feelings ran so high that the impassioned debate nearly overran the hour-long slot allocated to it.
Nick Clegg will be standing for re-election as an MP at the general election in two months’ time.
There is no certainty that the incoming government, whatever its composition, will grant fairy tale funding to the ‘Cinderella service’.
Jasmine Wing is Rising East’s Health and Wellbeing Editor.