The
Conservative party’s claim that many people with mental health issues are well
enough to work is “stigmatising and inaccurate”, said Mental Health Research this week.
They
hope that their statement, reproduced in full here, will help Prime Minister Sunak better
understand that serious mental health issues afflicting thousands are anything
but “mild conditions” and that if untreated can only get worse.
Mental
Health Research say:
Last
week, the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to review the fit note
system for people who aren’t well enough to work, with a focus on mental
health. His speech given on 19 April 2024 continued a rhetoric from the
Conservative party regarding mental health that is concerningly stigmatising
and inaccurate.
In a
speech given in central London on Friday, Mr Sunak said he would target
Personal Independence Payments (PIP) if he won the next election, claiming the
rising number of people signed off from work due to “mild conditions” such as
anxiety and depression was “not sustainable”.
FACT: While some people
experience milder cases of anxiety and depression, these conditions can also be
severe, rapidly escalating to become debilitating. Anxiety and depression can
also be combined with other physical conditions causing a person to not be able
to work. There is a difference between feeling sad and clinical depression and
a difference between feeling
anxious and anxiety disorder. However anxiety and depression left untreated can be a
cause of further physical illness and worsening mental illness. It is also very
common for someone who has a mental health condition to also have at least one
other coexisting physical health condition, if not more. Examples
include, a link between hypermobility
and anxiety discovered by MQ researchers or a link between Cardio-vascular
disease and depression.
The
five-point plan Mr Sunak announced included removing responsibility for issuing
sick notes from GPs, instead handing the duty to so-called specialist work and
health professionals in a bid to end the “sick note culture”.
FACT: Mr Sunak’s statements
come at a time when 1.9 million people are on waiting lists for mental health
support in the UK. And while the overall budget for the NHS has increased,
spending on mental health care has remained comparatively unchanged.
Mr Sunak
said his stance was part of a “moral mission” to get people back to work as his
government would “significantly reform and control welfare”.
FACT: From 2021 to 2022 the
rate of adults being signed off work due to sickness or injury increased by
2.6% according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The rate of sickness
absence from work is now at the highest level since 2004. Universal Credit
claimants (or those classified as unable to work) are more likely to list a
mental or behavioural disorder as one of the reasons. However, when a person is
assessed as being unfit for work, mental health is usually only one of many reasons recorded. In fact,
comorbidities along with suicide are reasons why people with severe mental illness die 10-20
years earlier than other people.
Among
the Conservatives’ planned changes was a consultation on a “more objective and
rigorous approach” in the benefits system. This includes benefits stopping if
someone does not comply with conditions set by a work coach. Another was a
promise to “tighten” the work capability assessment (WCA).
FACT: While being in work
can be good for mental health, and there is more the workplace can
do to improve the mental health of employees, in some cases being signed off work can
be beneficial and can prevent worsening mental health and subsequent
physical health conditions developing, which in turn leads to further costs to
the economy.
Mr Sunak
also pledged for new legislation to prevent “fraudsters” from exploiting
“the natural compassion and generosity of the British people”.
FACT: mental illness and
mental health distress is neither made up nor a fraud. Research continues to
show evidence of genetic and biological differences. Using the word “fraud”
when discussing mental health further demonises at risk and vulnerable groups
already marginalised and lacking support when suicide rates are increasing. Isolation
and shame is known to contribute to the risk of suicide. The suicide rate in
England is currently the highest in a quarter of a century. Last year there
were 5,579 recorded suicides in England (ONS), the most since 1999 and a 5.5
per cent increase on the 5,284 in 2022.
Mr Sunak
highlighted the growing number of people struggling with anxiety and
depression, saying new cases have doubled since 2019 and “We need to be more
ambitious about helping people back to work and more honest about the risk of
over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life.”
FACT: Something that Mr
Sunak’s comments omit are the clear link between COVID-19, procedures taken
during the pandemic and mental health statistics. For example, people who were
hospitalised with COVID-19 are more likely to have a diagnosis
of depression or an anxiety disorder than others. Anxiety and
depression levels continued to rise in 2022 and cases
amongst young people rose during the
pandemic. It’s only through research and funding for research that we
can reach better understanding of causes, preventions and treatments (such as this groundbreaking MQ
study)
for anxiety and depression.
“Rishi Sunak is saying that mental illness is not serious and
debilitating. Parity of esteem is dead.” James Downs, MQ ambassador
Mr
Sunak’s statement follows comments from members of his party including the
Secretary for Work and Pensions, Mel Stride, who last month said in an
interview with The Telegraph Newspaper, that “mental health culture has gone
too far” and “we are labelling the normal ups and downs of human life as
medical conditions which then actually serve to hold people back and,
ultimately, drive up the benefit bill.”
FACT: Last year the UK Government scrapped the
10-year mental health plan. Following this, MQ and other mental health experts called
on the Government to reinstate the cancelled 10-year Mental Health Strategy
after a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG): The Major Conditions Strategy:
A 10-year failure for Mental Health. In a letter hand-delivered to 10
Downing Street on Thursday 20th July last year,
Mr
Stride’s comments, like Mr Sunak’s focused on fit notes and the NHS. Mr Stride
also said “If {people} go to the doctor and say ‘I’m feeling rather down and
bluesy’, the doctor will give them on average about seven minutes and then, on
94 per cent of occasions, they will be signed off as not fit to carry out any
work whatsoever.”
FACT: Demand for services
has rapidly escalated with mental health care providers
overwhelmed. Referrals to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services
(CAMHS) has risen by 353% since 2016 and regardless of age, many people in need
of support are waiting too long for desperately needed treatment from NHS staff
who are overworked and reduced.
Labour’s
shadow health secretary Wes Streeting responded to Mr Sunak’s comments saying
the Conservatives are “attempting to make mental ill health another front for
their culture wars”. Mr Streeting called this “not just tone deaf, it’s shameless
and irresponsible.”
The
opposition’s plans for mental health, Mr Streeting says, differ: “Instead of
attempting to cover up the scale of the problem, the next Labour government
will give people the support they desperately need.”
FACT: Over 30 mental health
organisations, including MQ Mental Health Research joined together last year to
call on all political parties to make a commitment to mental health in their
election manifestos. This was outlined in a Mentally Healthier Nation report. We,
along with the other signatories in this report, believe that a long-term
comprehensive cross-government plan is essential to protect and promote the
whole of the UK's mental health.
