Depression affects as many as 1 in 4 of us in our lifetimes, 1 in 10 adults at any one time. So the truth is, it affects all of us – whether we have experienced depression ourselves, or as partners, parents, children, siblings, friends and colleagues of those who have, and may well still suffer. The misery that it brings is cruel and pernicious – we know it shatters lives. But despite the fact that depression touches all of our lives, it is still far too poorly understood.
As Minister for Mental Health, I awarded government funding to the Time to Change campaign to challenge the stigma of mental ill health and I’m pleased to say that the funding has continued throughout this parliament, and should, in my view, continue in the next. It has been very successful and has helped change mindsets in a range of fields. Celebrities and politicians have been brave enough to talk publicly about their own experiences of depression, and it has helped.
And there is an emerging a new focus on well-being. Last week, I launched a mental health report with CentreForum which explicitly calls on the government to make happiness a priority in policy making and recommends action to improve well-being across communities, schools and workplaces and build resilience.
Things are beginning to move in the right direction. But while we have shifted a little and become more honest about depression, we still don’t really know enough about it, we don’t understand why different therapies and different medications work for different people. And fundamentally, we can’t truly understand what it feels like for anyone else, whether sufferer or carer, and what the most important issues are to them.
That’s why MQ, the new mental health research charity, are asking for your thoughts on what questions research on depression needs to answer. They want to hear from people who have, or have recovered from depression, from carers, friends and family of people affected by depression, and from health and social care professionals who work with them. They want to hear from experts by experience where the money and energy needs to be spent to make sure that the right research questions are prioritised.
We all know that we need to build resilience against depression and sharpen the tools available to us to help people at the first signs of depression and help them recover quicker. Please lend your help to guide the research agenda so that we can all reach this goal quicker.
* Paul Burstow is Liberal Democrat candidate for Sutton and Cheam and was the MP until the dissolution of Parliament on 30th March.
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10 Comments
How is the effectiveness of things like “Time to Change” evaluated?
I applaud Paul for all his work on Mental Illness – the Centre Forum paper is a guide to how provision, prevention and intervention should be governed.
I take a very personal interest in this, on the maternal side to my family there is an overwhelming strong case that mental illness may have a hereditary basis, bar one, all my mothers siblings (there were 9) including my mother and her mother have suffered. I too suffer, any work that can help improve the lives of those who suffer, those around those who suffer is to be looked at seriously, I would urge anyone who has been affected with depression to have a look at guiding this research.
The earlier we can treat the better, for some I seriously believe it maybe too late: I am quite resistant now to most treatment, possibly because hope have been raised in the past and they failed and now my brain/thought processes are hard wired to be very cynical of most forms of treatment.
Any help : any thoughts – any ideas on how to improve the lives of those who suffer the Black Dog, is useful.
Thank You.
Survey completed. It only took 5 minutes. However, giving money to these charities is not always the best way to help depression and we have to be weary of false experts who think we can create a happier society by throwing lots of money at mental health.
Best wishes
Will you PLEASE stop mentioning ‘happiness’ in the same breath as depression.
Depression is an ILLNESS.
It has NOTHING to do with happiness.
One can be unhappy for all sorts of reasons: if one has been bereaved, perhaps, or if one’s life is not going the way it should.
These are NOT depression and they do NOT need to be ‘treated’ and crucially they are none of the government’s business
It it the government’s job to ensue the health of its population, and this means treating illnesses, like depression.
But it is NOT the government’s job to make its population happy, or to check up on their happiness, or otherwise to poke its nose into their happiness or lack of it.
It bears saying again: depression is NOT unhappiness, and unhappiness is NOT depression.
Depression is an illness and treatment must be made available for those who suffer from it.
Unhappiness is NOT an illness.
I agree with Tim’s point that it’s important not to conflate the illness that is that is depression, with the emotion that is happiness (which may be influenced by depression).
However, since 2011 UN countries have been surveying population happiness and found that it’s linked to a whole host of other factors; happy countries tend to be healthier, fewer problems with addiction or teenage pregnancy, fewer people on sickness benefits, higher democratic engagement etc. You can argue the causality both ways, of course, but we’d be a very different and IMHO better country if we used median happiness as a target instead of GDP to guide domestic policies.
What Dave said
I’m so very proud that you and Norman Lamb have done so much work on this subject, Paul. Makes being in Government worthwhile.
@James Moore
I have been very close to leaving the party on many issues, but the resent hard work and dedication both Paul and Norman have put into recognising the illness and the poor relation it is in the NHS and their willingness to listen to our concerns, has for me made just a tiny bit content with our role in the coalition. Not much, but for our stance on this issue, I can say I am impressed with our work. A might long way to go, but we have made a start.
So, I agree with James.
happy countries tend to be healthier, fewer problems with addiction or teenage pregnancy, fewer people on sickness benefits, higher democratic engagement etc
Those are things which are up to the citizens’ free will, though. The government shouldn’t be attempting to influence them: it should be keeping its citizens safe and prosperous. If the citizens then decide to make themselves miserable by stuffing their faces or drinking like fish, that is their prerogative. It’s none of the government’s business.
@ Tim
Just so I am clear in my own assessment and conclusion to your comment – are you suggesting that depression is a construct of self-inflicted causations such as over-eating and drinking? These ‘habits’ are also linked as a response to and not just a cause of depression.
I agree that ‘unhappiness’ and depression are distinct, yet it is proven that the general well – being of the citizens in a country (that does include their general self-worth or a degree of happiness) improves their life chances and the prosperity of the country. It also lessens in our case the NHS burden. Curing unhappiness is not the answer to curing depression, which I doubt will ever be found. some like myself are predisposed to depressive episodes, they will palgue people like myself forever. Yet dismissing the overall benefits of ‘happiness’, while a tradionally Liberal approach to the govt. getting the hell out of our lives: is perhaps not so easily reconcilled with us on the Social Liberal wing.