John Bowis MEP, the conservatives’ health spokesman, has launched the European parliament response to the commission green paper on mental health.
It is all very worthy stuff. He believes strongly in the issue, and why not. There is even a reference to the Lisbon process – a sane continent is a wealthy, productive one.
The subject is, vast, and well depressing, so from a recent hearing he organised here are just nuggets. No matter how you look at it, psychiatric institutions are reservoirs of human suffering… The contradiction of psychiatry is that you that you herd patients together and expect them to feel better…For many patients, waiting for the cure is a complete waste of time: the miracle of the cure will never come…The psychiatric system is not nearly able to cure as much as it thinks, so waiting for it to do so keeps patients submissive and passive…Patients are people with lives to be led, some aspects of which may require professional assistance…France has the greatest number of psychiatrists per capita…With populations growing older and dementia rises, mental health strategies have to be integrated into public health.
Someone with mental health problems needs a one stop shop ensuring contact, access to medical care, housing and other social care needs, income legal services and rehabilitation. But if one is ill, one needs the security of home, not the isolation of high rise flats. A paradox: increased resources only come when a man jumps into the lion’s den at the zoo, or another stabs someone on the London underground, and the media and politicians clamour for action – which happens, at a price: increased stigma. Bowis concludes his report movingly.
“We need to look into the eyes of people with mental health problems. When we do, we see reflected back the confusion of emotions and thoughts. We see the fear and worry. We see the tears of frustration and despair. But we also see the hope – the hope that we will listen; that we will understand; that we will care; that we will act; that we can help.”
The health spokes man of another party said: "It's all good stuff, but mental health really an EU issue? It's surely for the nation states to settle."
