Mental Health

• Mental health problems affect a significant proportion of the population:
  • Approximately one in six (17.6%) have a common mental health disorder (e.g. depression or anxiety), a proportion which has increased slightly since 1993[i]. Only around a quarter (24%) of sufferers are receiving treatment, and for most this is medication.
  • 30,000 children are on waiting lists for mental health services but Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) require children to show an elevated degree of mental health or behavioural problems to receive support. This is completely incongruous with principles of prevention.
• Mental health problems particularly affect poorer families:
  • Men in the poorest quintile were three times more likely to have a common mental disorder as those in the highest quintile (23.5% compared to 8.8%)[ii]. The prevalence of psychotic disorder increased from 0.1% of adults in the highest income quintile to 0.9% of adults in the lowest income quintile, with the trend more marked among women[iii].
• Poor mental health is implicated in many significant signs of social breakdown:
  • 64% of sentenced male prisoners, and 50% of all female prisoners, have at least one clinically assessed personality disorder.
  • 10% of males on remand (and 7% of those sentenced) and 14% of female prisoners had a clinically assessed functional psychosis (including schizophrenia, bipolar and severe or recurrent depression) during the previous year.
  • Over 90% of prisoners had one or more of the following five psychiatric disorders: psychosis, neurosis, personality disorder, hazardous drinking and drug dependence.
  • There is a very strong correlation between drug dependence and personality disorders, and a correlation with psychosis as well[iv].
• The cost of mental health treatment, including dementia is estimated at £22.5 billion annually (£7.65 billion excluding dementia)[v].
• It is estimated that the cost of lost employment as a result of mental health disorders is £26.1 billion annually (2007 prices)[vi]. Almost a million people were claiming Incapacity Benefit on the basis of ‘mental or behaviour disorders’ in August 2008.

The report will be look in detail at:

• The role that family breakdown, addictions, worklessness, and traumatic experiences play in triggering or causing different kinds of mental disorders and how mental health problems contribute to further social breakdown
• The particular challenges faced by serving and retiring military personnel who have experienced trauma in combat
• Successful models of care (eg. ‘care in the community’, residential therapeutic care) and the returns on investment from these and the overall efficiency and effectiveness of our mental health services
• The merits of and means for achieving an overarching public health approach to mental health
• Is the balance right between medical and social interventions
• Are services geared towards maintenance or recovery
• What accounts for the relatively high proportion of BME mental health sufferers and what should be done about this
• How well child and adolescent mental health services are integrated with adult services
• Access to justice and back-to-work support for those suffering from mental illness
  

[i] (The proportion increased from 15.5% in 1993 to 17.5% in 2000 and 17.6% in 2007.) http://www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/publications/mental%20health/other%20mental%20health%20publications/Adult%20psychiatric%20morbidity%2007/APMS%2007%20(FINAL)%20Standard.pdf

[ii]http://www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/publications/mental%20health/other%20mental%20health%20publications/Adult%20psychiatric%20morbidity%2007/APMS%2007%20(FINAL)%20Standard.pdf, p. 32

[iii] Ibid. p.89

[iv] Ibid p. 224. Note that the authors of this household survey say that it probably under-estimamtes the correlation

[v] King’s Fund

[vi] King’s Fund

CHAIRMAN

Dr Samantha Callan (Chairman)
Dr Samantha Callan is recognised as a research and policy expert in the field of family relationships and work-life integration. She is an honorary research fellow at Edinburgh University and formerly a research consultant to major UK and international non-governmental organisations aiming to strengthen family life. In this capacity she chaired the Family Breakdown Working Group of the Social Justice Policy Commission and the Family Law Review and Early Years Commission for the Centre for Social Justice. Prior to joining the CSJ full-time she was the Family and Society Policy adviser in the Conservative Policy Unit.

WORKING GROUP

Prof Peter Fonagy
Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis, Head of the Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at University College London and Chief Executive at the Anna Freud Centre, London