NEWTEKWORLDNEWS
Menu

Oliver Letwin failing mental health

26/1/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
Matt Kynaston United Kingdom

Op-ed: "Anger is a fuel. Anger is meant to be listened to, Anger is a voice, a shout, a plea, a demand. Anger is meant to be respected. Why? Because Anger is a map. Anger shows us where our boundaries are. It lets us see where we have been and lets us know where we want to go. Anger points the way, not the finger. Anger is meant to be acted upon, not acted out.” Julia Cameron, 1993.

On Wednesday January 20, 2016, I attended an evening featuring a keynote speech by Mr Oliver Letwin, Conservative MP for Dorset West, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and responsible for the oversight of the Cabinet Office.

I decided to use the opportunity to once again raise the call for mental health.

The event, hosted by Tory-funded ‘liberal conservative pressure group’ Bright Blue, was billed as a discussion focussing on “Opportunity For All”. When booking my tickets, I assumed (correctly) that the event was likely to involve examples of how the government was working to ensure equal opportunities for all people regardless of background.

PictureAt the event
This was undoubtedly organised as a way of winning over middle ground voters, and maybe even as part of an effort to clean up Mr Letwin’s recently marred public image.

Ideology first

The 45 minute speech on conservative ideals was an eye opener to me, as I had never heard it straight from the source. If you aren’t aware, the concept is that we should all be striving to write the “story of our own lives” and that no-one should be held back from achieving their dreams and thus we “liberate the human spirit”. I agree, working hard and being ambitious is awesome, however, I find it even more liberating when I am also conscious to the many incredible “stories” being written around me, and indeed the greater story that we play a small part of. Conservatism, I discovered, is a little too ego-centric for my liking. I guess that makes me “left-leaning”?

Takin’ it to the man

After this speech, I was the first of the audience to raise my hand to ask a question. I put it to Mr Letwin that the government was failing to deal with our rising mental health issues.

Despite the government’s numerous promises for increased investment, all the evidence (below) is showing us that vital funding and support is not being made available to mental health services on the NHS, and that these issues are being largely neglected. That combined with the fact that the government has now stopped publishing how much it spends and where this spend is allocated (information only accessible via Freedom of Information requests), means it is now even harder to hold the government to account, when it shouldn’t be.

Mr Letwin replied typically (and disappointingly) by heralding all the great achievements done in the past to address mental health, but said that there was still a lot more to do.

You can listen to the full exchange here.

What is actually happening…

The ideas of “big society” and “opportunity for all” are noble, however they can only work in practice when we all have the same access to basic and necessary healthcare.

After six-years of a Conservative led government the signs are bleak where our NHS is concerned. Indeed, when telling us to focus on our individualistic aspirations, one has to ask where a collectivist institution like the NHS fits? Is that why we are seeing increasingly more of it sold off and privatised?

Just some of the depressing facts about our collective state of mental health:
  • The number of people becoming so ill they had to be detained under the Mental Health Act leapt by 10% in the past year.
  • The number of children being treated on adult mental health wards – something that the Mental Health Act rightly says should not happen at all – rose again in 2015.
  • Suicide is the highest it has been since 2001.
  • We are in the midst of a psychiatry recruitment crisis: there has been a 94% increase in vacant and unfilled consultant posts.
What the government is (or not) doing:
  • Government has pledged to spend £600million in mental health services. However, that is only a returning on spending levels we had in 2010.
  • NHS trusts’ income for mental health services has actually dropped by 8.25% in real terms over past five years.
  • The Government committed to £250m on child and adolescent mental health services or CAMHS for 2015/16, but the Government has admitted there will be a £77m shortfall on what they have pledged.
  • In 2014/15 funding for mental health trusts was cut by 20% more than that for other hospitals.
  • A King’s Fund report published in November 2015 found that just 14% of people felt that they received appropriate care in a crisis.
There is even mounting evidence that government policy is harming our collective mental health:
  • The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health recently concluded that the programme of reassessing people on disability benefits using the Work Capability Assessment was independently associated with an increase in suicides, self-reported mental health problems and antidepressant prescribing.
  • 83% of people surveyed by the charity, Mind, reported that the Work Programme made their mental health condition worse.
  • The latest statistics reveal that less than 9% of people with mental health problems receiving Employment and Support Allowance have been helped into a job by the Work Programme.
I was also very saddened to read just yesterday the miserable story about Frances McCormack, the latest to take her own life after the added pressures brought about by the government’s controversial “bedroom tax”.

Accountability (lack of)

Lack of accountability is also a big problem: we still have no clarity on the promised government spending. In fact you have to use a Freedom of Information request to find out how much Clinical Commissioning Groups were allocating to mental health. The findings are alarming: 67% of CCGs spent less than 10% of their budget on mental health. This is despite mental health accounting for 23% of the total burden of disease.

In 2011/12 total investment in mental health dropped for the first time in a decade. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that same year the Government stopped publishing how much it invests in mental health.

It simply is not good enough. One has to wonder at what point will this government start taking our health seriously.

So…

My question to you: Can individualistic/ capitalistic ideologies work when managing the public sector industries, like our National Health Service, where our quality of healthcare, safety and well-being (not profit) is the “bottom line”?

The latest results of a poll I started on YouGov:

I look forward to reading your comments below.

Check out the author Matt Kynaston here
Picture
And listen to Matthew via sound cloud
1 Comment
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Tweet

    Yourvoice

    This blog will include a range of reports and opinion pieces covering many issues. It will be YOUR Voice.

    It launched two-days ahead of the UK General Election 2015 with an opinion piece about Labour and British wildlife.

    If you would like to post a report here  please contact the team.

    None of the posts are paid advertising-instead they cover a wide range of important issues with the occasional just for fun post thrown in for good measure.

    Note:- Some of the reports posted may also appear elsewhere online, posted by the actual writer or be press releases but all will share important issues and many will include petition links.

    Archives

    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015

    Categories

    All
    2016 US Elections
    38 Degrees
    Abdul Kuddus
    Abdul Sattar Edhi
    Abuse
    Airstrikes Syria
    Airwars
    Angry Dan
    Animal Abuse
    Animal Welfare
    Anti Austerity
    Anti Racism Demo
    Anti Semitism
    Arbitration
    Austerity Myth
    BBC Bias
    BDS
    Becky Ramsay
    Bees
    Ben Baddeley
    Big Corporation Hand Outs
    Big Corporations
    Blairite
    Blame Labour
    Blue For Bonnie
    B McPherson
    BNP
    Bonnie Armitage Death
    BRexit
    Brigitte Bardot Foundation
    Britain First Petition
    British Censorship
    British Elections
    British Fascism
    British Homelessness
    British Politics
    British Steel
    British Steel Pensions
    Bruce Springsteen
    Brussels
    Budget Cuts
    Calais Refugees
    Cameron In Lazarote
    Campaigning For Peace
    Chelley Ryan
    Child Abuse
    Child Detention Israel
    Chris Grayling
    Climate Change
    Compulsory Microchipping
    Copeland
    Corbyn Appeals To 50 Years Plus
    Corbyn Backstabbers
    Corbyn Rally Hull
    Corbyn Values
    Cruel Bull Fighting
    Cuba USA Relations
    Czech Republic
    Daniel Ryder
    David Cameron
    Digital Economy Bill
    Disability Rights
    Disabled Discrimination
    Dodgydavespmqs
    Donald Trump
    Donald Trump Rally
    Dont Bomb Syria
    Dont Spy On Us
    Dorothy Badrick
    Do Your Job John Bercow
    Drahonice
    DWP
    DWP Petition
    DWP Rules
    Education
    Education Protests
    Electoral Commission
    Electoral Reform
    Enbridge
    ESA Cuts
    EU Referendum
    EU Referendum Hype
    Fayetteville Trump Rally
    Fidel Castro Open Letter
    Fire And Rescue Service
    Fire Brigade Union
    First Nations
    Flesh Eating Disease
    Flood Rescue Service
    Fox Hunting
    Frederick James
    Freedom Of Panorama
    Friends Of Israel
    Galgo Appeal
    Gay Rights
    Gaza
    Gemma McCormick
    General Election 2015
    George Osborne Slasher
    Georgie Harrison
    Government Petitions
    Greenpeace News
    Help Ben Walk
    Hidden Crime
    Hillside Animal Sanctuary
    Homeless For Christmas
    Homelessness
    Hull Veterans
    Human Rights
    Hunters Death Shamefully Used
    Hunting Act
    Hunting Act Petition
    Hunting Ban
    Iain Duncan Smith
    Iain McNicol
    IDS Lies
    Indian News
    Inquiry Into Panama Papers
    Investigatory Powers Bill
    Iowa Rejects Trump
    Irish Democratic Party
    Islamaphobia
    Islamic State
    Jayne Linney
    Jeremy Corbyn
    Jeremy Corbyn Open Letter
    Jeremy Corbyn Statement On Syria
    Jeremy Corbyn Supporters
    Jeremy Hunt
    Jeremy Hunt Dimposition
    Jess Phillips
    Jo Cox Murder
    Johann Malawana
    John Healey
    John McDonnell
    Jonathan Lundgren
    Jordan Ray Correll
    Junior Doctors New Contracts
    Junior Doctors Strikes
    Karen Meanwell
    Ken Smollen
    Kids Abuse Puppy
    Killing Labour
    King Of Spain
    Labour 2020 Election Chances
    Labour Backstabbers
    Labour First
    Labour Leadership Hustings
    Labour Party
    Labour Party Conference Brighton
    Labour Party Open Letter
    Lawsuits
    Lee Wright
    Leishmaniasis Disease
    LEXIT
    LGBT Rights
    Local Elections
    Luke Akehurst
    Malia Bouattia
    Mangalore
    May Elections
    Mental G
    Mental Health
    Mental Health Britain
    Michael Dugher
    Microbeads
    Microchip Dogs
    Migration
    Mike Parsons
    Miners
    Miners Strike
    Momentum
    MPs Reject Panama Papers Inquiry
    National Censor
    NEC Candidates
    NEC Elections
    Never Trust A Tory
    New State Pension
    NHS Doctor
    NHS Privatisation
    NHS Strikes
    Nic Outterside
    Nobel Peace Prize Nominations
    North Carolina LGBT
    NUS
    Occupy UAL
    Oliver Letwin
    Oliver Letwin Event
    Online Censorship
    Online Encryption
    Online Privacy
    Open Letter
    Open Letter Reply
    Open Rights
    Open Rights Group
    Open Water Safety Campaign
    Owen Smith Event
    Paedphiles
    Palmyra
    Paris Terror Attacks
    Patricia Betty
    Peoples Assembly
    Petition
    Petition For Chunky
    PIP Assessment
    PLP Corbyn Demands
    PMqs
    Press Release
    Privatisation Of NHS
    Protesters
    Rachel Mulberg
    Refugee Camp
    Refugee Crisis
    Republican Vote
    RNLI
    Rob Galloway
    Robin Cook
    RSPCA
    Ruling Class
    Saudi King Extravagance
    Saudi Mass Executions
    Saudi Silences Protesters
    Save Our Libraries
    Save Our NHS
    Save The NHS
    Shell Abandons Arctic
    Shelter Osborne Petition
    Sir Ivan Rogers Quits
    Snoopers Charter
    Snooping
    Socialism
    Standing Rock
    Stand Up To Racism
    Stephen Doughty Resignation
    Stoke Central
    Stop The War
    Stop TPP
    Student Loan Sell Off
    Suicide
    SumOfUs
    Support Corbyn
    Surveillance Legislation
    Surveillance Powers
    Syria
    Tent City Hull
    Terry Mitchell
    The Labour Party Fight Is On
    To Do List
    Tooting Election
    Tortured Chunky
    Tory Backstabbing
    Tory Disarray
    Tory Election Fraud
    Tory Party In Crisis
    Trade Union Bill
    Trots
    Trump
    Trump Bad Loser
    Turing Law
    Tweetstorm
    University Cuts
    Vile IDS
    Vitamin Deficiency Health Risks
    War
    War On Want
    Weather On Day Born
    Women State Pensions
    Zofran

Click to set custom HTML
Support NEWTEK - Like what we do here at NEWTEK? If so, you should consider supporting us…
Running a news based website is fun, time consuming and can be costly. If you would like to help the site keep afloat please use the donate button
​
Sections:
News:
Welcome
Front page
Specials:

One Woman So Many Blogs


The Jeremy Corbyn Effect
​
NEWTEKWORLDNEWS:
About Us
Contact Us
Terms of Service
Cookie policy
Picture
  • Welcome
  • Latest
  • Animal Welfare
  • Barbara McPherson
  • Robert Weller
  • Dava Castillo
  • Odd News
  • Environment, science and health matters
  • On this day in History
  • About Us
  • Terms of Service
  • Our Cookie Policy
  • Welcome
  • Latest
  • Animal Welfare
  • Barbara McPherson
  • Robert Weller
  • Dava Castillo
  • Odd News
  • Environment, science and health matters
  • On this day in History
  • About Us
  • Terms of Service
  • Our Cookie Policy