Psychological welfare needs prioritisation

The BPS has emphasised the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the role of community and preventative approaches in its response to the government's consultation on its 10-year mental health plan for England. Earlier this year the government released its consultation questions, developed alongside those with lived experience and other stakeholders, including how people can improve their own wellbeing, and how to prevent the onset of mental health conditions.

One question in the government's call for evidence asked how best to support the wellbeing of those who were more likely to experience poor wellbeing. The BPS emphasised the generally higher prevalence of mental health conditions among those in disadvantaged groups; this includes higher rates of psychotic disorder among Black men, higher rates of poor mental ill-health in the LGBT community, and worse IAPT recovery outcomes for disabled people in England.

The Society suggested that community-based approaches could address health and social inequalities which cause distress, and gave the examples of the Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service and Gwent Community Psychology Team. 'Building and maintaining trusting relationships between communities and services is essential and people must be able to see themselves represented fairly in the ways that services and practitioners understand them and the challenges that they face.'

In its response to government questions on the ways employers can help to prevent the onset of mental ill health, the BPS pointed to the impact of the pandemic on ways of working and the fact the pandemic has contributed to feelings of job insecurity. The Society also highlighted that the stress-related sickness absence was higher than average in the NHS compared with other job sectors. 'Stress, alongside anxiety and other psychiatric illnesses, is consistently the most reported reason for sickness absence in the NHS, accounting for over 511,000 full time equivalent days lost costing the NHS up to £400 million per annum. For health service staff and those working in other frontline services, psychological welfare needs to be a high priority, with the required funding in place to ensure that support can be given. A rise in the number of staff experiencing stress is understandable as the NHS has worked in emergency mode during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the further increase from 40.3 to 44 per cent of staff experiencing work-related stress is the continuation of a long-term trend.'

Read the government's discussion paper on its 10-year mental health strategy.