UK’s mental health spending gap
The mental health charity, Mind, have looked at investment across 42 NHS regions and found that there a nearly a two-fold difference in mental health spending across England. The biggest spenders were those such as South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, spending £220.63 per person, per year, compared to Gloucestershire who only spends £137.00 per person, per year.
Despite this difference, Mind, noted that spending on mental health is on the rise and being made a priority within government.
Read more on BBC.
The battle to find mental health workers
20 percent of unfilled nursing posts are attributable to mental health nurses and retention statistics don’t look much better with around 2,000 mental health staff in England quitting every month.
One problem believed to be associated with these poor figures is the stigma behind studying pdychaitary as a profession. Students are faced with derogatory comments from their seniors, questioning why on earth they chose the profession. However, crucial to the delivery of the NHS long term plan, recruitment figures are now looking up, thanks to recruitment campaigns and additional pay.
Read more on the Guardian.
We need to protect the mental health of NHS staff
Despite suffering from mental health problems themselves, Healthcare professionals are still expected to provide high quality patient care. This group of people have been branded the “second victims” suffering from emotional distress and mental ill health as a result of the same incidents that harm patients.
Read more in Guardian.
One in three UK teenagers ‘ashamed of their body’
Researchers at the Mental Health Foundation have found that almost a third of British teenagers are ashamed of their body, with ‘ideal body’ images on social media driving their insecurities.
Overall, 31% of 13- to 19-year-olds feel ashamed of their body shape, according to the survey of 1,118 British teenagers. 35% had stopped eating or limited what they ate because they were worried about their body. Two in five said pictures they had seen on social media had made them worry about their body.
The findings prompted calls for advertisements for weight loss and cosmetic surgery to be vetted and for social media firms to do more to prevent young people feeling bad about their bodies. NHS England has previously called for social media firms to pay a levy to help fund mental healthcare for under-18s, to reflect the harmful impact their content can have.
Read more from the Independent.
Quote of the week
Our quote of the week comes from Big Narstie, Channel 4’s resident funny man, but also a mental health advocate, following the announcement of his battle with bi-polar. He recently spoke with RadioTimes.com to mark Mental Health Awareness Week, discussing the release of his album BDL Bipolar, touring to British universities with the charity Mind and his Youtube series, Uncle Pain.
“I want to show people my successful side, but I want to show you my bipolar side too. Yeah, sometimes I just want to sit in my boxer shorts and cry. That’s being a human.”
Read more from the Radio Times.
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