Funding for mental health

has suddenly become a major issue again.

My doctor nephew works in the area of mental health. He was on contract last year. He is on contract again this year. Younger doctors are not getting permanent hours or permanent employment now, especially in the area of mental health. All too often he was told that, even though he was contracted to work a certain number of hours, there was no money to employ him at a shift even when though he had already arrived.  When on a shift he would often have to work far more hours than those for which he was contracted - often without pay. I don't know what his present position is but I am not sure it is any better. Yes, it puts the doctor under pressure. They can have mental health issues too.

But it also made me think of other things which have increased pressure on mental health for everyone.

Many more women have gone back to work in the last sixty years. This has generally been considered to be a good thing. It is a good thing in many ways. Despite all the problems involved some women have been able to use their training and their skills. Some have been able to pursue their careers and even reach the top rungs of ladders. Women are contributing more to all areas and they do so in ways which are different from men. 

All that has come at a cost - to men as well as women. I know there are still many men out there who feel threatened by this. They don't like working for a "female boss". Women feel under pressure to not simply do the job but to do it better than their male counterparts. At home they are still expected to do most of the housework and the bringing up of the children. We still don't value the mothering an caring roles the way we should, indeed we don't value good parenting and caring the way we should.

I wonder how many mental health issues have been exacerbated by these things?

There is also the issue of changes to the school curriculum. Children are now being expected to learn about "issues" we had not even heard of when I was at school. We knew about the importance of planting trees on "Arbour Day" but we knew nothing about "global warming" (global cooling was more of an issue if we knew about it at all). We knew it was wrong to tease anyone who was different or taunt them because of their skin colour but we didn't have lessons about "Islam" or "racism".  We were taught to be polite and that boys had a responsibility to look after girls and not do harm. We weren't given sex-education lessons or lessons about domestic violence and rape. Yes, those things existed but we were largely ignorant of them. Simply knowing about these things puts pressure on children, especially when they really don't understand all the implications. 

And now it is so much easier to make negative comments about other people and get away with it. "Social media" really isn't social at all. It puts some people under pressure to the point where they take their own lives. 

We don't address those issues. We don't address the issue of people who go to work but sit at a computer screen for most of the day or work on a production line where talking to the person next to them is not possible or not allowed. We ignore the fact that many people simply turn on a television set at night, that meals are not eaten together and much more. 

Is it any wonder those who work in mental health want more staff and more funding? Perhaps it is time to look at the sort of issues which are causing what is now considered to be a crisis?