It’s time to stop talking about mental health

Actions speak louder than words

Another day, another article about how “we need to talk about mental health”, this time from the always well-meaning, if occasionally wide-of-the mark Owen Jones in the Guardian.

Am I the only one thinking that all we do is talk about mental health? We talk about how we need to talk about it. We talk about how it’s OK to talk about it.

Lloyd’s Bank has been partnered with Mental Health UK — and making cringeworthily earnest adverts about it — since 2017.

I think we can all agree that once even the banks have jumped on a bandwagon, the message has gone well and truly mainstream.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s good to talk. I just can’t help but thinking we’re having the wrong conversations.

I want to talk about how I was “lucky” to get NHS talking therapy only 8 months after being referred— other people are waiting up to two years. I want to talk about how a friend of mine took an overdose in a deliberate attempt to get sectioned, because it’s the only way to access urgent mental health care.

I want to talk about how England has lost a third of NHS mental health beds and 15% of mental health nurse posts over the last 10 years as trusts have suffered budget cuts of 8% in real terms year on year.

It’s 2020 and we know it’s OK to talk. It’s just there’s no one left to listen.