A guest from Kirsty Connell, former Labour candidate and Vice Chair of the STUC’s Young Workers’ Committee. Thanks Kirsty!
Bigotry, booze, a better wage. The SNP’s priorities as they return to Holyrood after recess are clear. Tackling sectarianism, introducing minimum pricing for alcohol and bringing in a Scottish Living Wage across the public sector.
Noble causes. But behind each of the social ills these three priorities attempt to remedy, a wider malaise lingers. The same sickness that infiltrated the riots earlier this month, the same that has and will continue to haunt Scotland.
Poverty. Discrimination. Violence. Poor health. All can be entwined, with one leading to the other. Equally they can be separate, afflicting an individual with one but not another. Each however has a common factor, snarling alongside each evil: the black dog of poor mental health.
The link between joblessness and poor mental health is both obvious and stark, especially among young people. According to The Future You, an online mentoring service, one in four young unemployed Scots has considered suicide. Although Scottish unemployment fell between 7.7% in early 2011, the rate of youth unemployment is stuck at 20%. In fellow devolved nation Wales, the Prince’s Trust found 48% of unemployed respondents to the 2011 Macquarie Youth Index claimed their lack of work led to panic attacks, self harm and self loathing.
It’s not just a problem for devolved nations, nor does it just affect those out of work. According World Health Organisation data published recently in Lancet, mental health disorders make up almost half of the diseases affecting the world’s adolescents and young adults.
It might not just be Scotland’s problem, but that doesn’t mean it’s a crisis the Scottish Government can ignore out of supposed powerlessness.
The push for improvements in young people’s mental health is still from outwith government. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy continues to call for a trained counsellor in every school. Family Nurse Partnerships and the early detection of cancer are welcome and necessary health policies, announced by the SNP during the election campaign. But no party in Scotland has a national strategy to implement the 2005 report The Mental Health of Children and Young People, which called for provision of confidential and accessible counselling for all young Scots by 2015.
Drinking because there’s nothing else to do. Invoking seventeenth century Irish politics as invective because sights are so narrowed. Struggling to even access a wage.
If Salmond and the SNP truly want to transform Scotland’s wellbeing, beyond mere physical health to a truly fit society, more thinking with – and for – the head is required.
#1 by Observer on August 31, 2011 - 7:34 pm
I completely agree that unemployment leads to depression, & not just amongst young people. However I am not sure that counselling is the answer. Obviously jobs would be a good answer, but in the absence of them, volunteering opportunities, good community facilities, planned community activities to get unemployed people out of their houses & engaged in activity would go a long way towards countering the depression of having nothing to do.
Unfortunately support for all of these things is being cut back as we speak.
I am sure there is a role for counselling, but actually giving people something to do in their own communities is also effective.
It also gives people something to show employers when they apply for work.
#2 by theshooglypeg on August 31, 2011 - 10:26 pm
The Scottish Government is launching a consultation on a new mental health strategy on 5th September. In amongst the plans for an Alcohol Bill, rammies over the Scotland Bill and Al-Megrahi recriminations, it’s likely to get a bit lost.This is a shame: it’s among the most important actions that this Government will take. I’d encourage anyone with an interest to read it and respond.
#3 by Kirsty on September 1, 2011 - 6:43 am
You are of course absolutely correct – jobs or at least opportunities to gain skills for work are the most crucial factor in reducing youth unemployment. But making sure young people are able to work needs more than just providing jobs – it’s also making sure they are physically and mentally well enough to work.
#4 by Indy on September 1, 2011 - 7:51 am
Agree with Observer – counselling may be able to help people once they have become depressed but the main focus should be on trying to change the circumstances which cause depression.
#5 by Rev. S. Campbell on September 1, 2011 - 11:01 am
Agree entirely with #1 above. In the austerity era, far too much focus is being placed on trying to either persuade or intimidate people into accepting their poverty, rather than doing anything to alleviate it. Out of work? Go out and sweep the streets for benefits, it’ll stop you having time to complain that they’re shutting the library and sacking all the street-sweepers.
#6 by Dr William Reynolds on September 1, 2011 - 12:46 pm
I fully agree with the arguments made in this article.The causes of mentall illness are numerous and located within different paradigms that attempt to explain mental illnees (nero-biological,psychodynamic and socio-economic paradigms).One of the problems in treatment is narrowness,ie too much focus on the neuro-biological paradigm,and an attempt to prevent and treat mental illness through medication alone.The problems with medication are undesirable side effects,non-compliance with medication,and the fact that medication does not change the world in which we live in.Unless we discover better ways of dealing with the world we live in,we fall back on using old coping methods that have failed us in the past,when stressors come along again.That is what councelling can address.Of course stigma,enemployment ,homelessness etc can also impact on our mental health.
There is a need for complexity in the prevention and treatment of mental illness.These days consumer survivor groups (those who have experienced mental illness) believe they have much to teach us about surviving mental illness and recovery.Getting back to the politics,politicians need to be informed by front line professionals,consumer groups and the cumulative research.I certainly hope that the Scottish governments consultation on mental health is informed by all of those sources.
#7 by Barbarian on September 1, 2011 - 9:11 pm
Good article and comments.
I suffered panic attacks 10 years ago following a serious illness. I received counselling which was excellent.
But try getting a counsellor now. A GP friend of mine has told me the waiting list is about 3 months for non-urgent cases (which mine was at the time, but I saw a counsellor within 2 weeks).
We know that no government can fix everything, but sometimes the priorities get muddled.
#8 by Indy on September 2, 2011 - 7:44 am
Sometimes government actively makes things worse. An acquaintance of mine suffered a very serious year long illness which has left him with limited mobility and depression. During his illness he repeatedly suffered from blood clots in his legs causing cardica arrest, it was touch and go several times whether he would make it.
Common sense would tell us that someone who has been through such a traumatic experience, literally teetering on the brink between life and death, will need time and space to recover mentally as well as physically. But according to the DWP he was fit to work. You couldn’t make it up.
Luckily he appealed the decision and it was overturned but it just added to the stress he was already under having to justify that he was really ill and not faking it!
#9 by Gavin Dowds on September 2, 2011 - 5:01 am
Surely the burden of responsibility lies with the parents of those aged under-eighteen who use alcohol. However, rightly or wrongly, legal guardians have become less able to influence their children’s behaviour as much as has traditionally been the case. With this in mind, the Educational System has a duty to engage with Scotland’s youngsters far more effectively and in a way that captivates them.
In the case of persistent alcohol-related criminals aged over eighteen years old; the responsibility rests firmly on their own shoulders and we can’t afford to subscribe to an ethos whereby we allow many of them to remain as benefit fraudsters and career freeloaders. They will eventually face prosecution but we have a responsibility to support the most vulnerable in our society. This includes alcoholics, drug users and even our prisoners; notwithstanding those who do not readily display humility or remorse. We must review the way that we rehabilitate offenders while they are detained, maintain an accessible support system upon release from prison, closely monitor their reintroduction into our communities and reward genuine character-reform with productive incentives.
#10 by M GRAHAM on September 3, 2011 - 12:44 am
This is what seriously hacks me off about politics.When will those with political ambition and those who are politicians STOP trying to improve our lot based on polls and surveys, Get off your high horse and do some research ! There have been numerous and successful interventions between the NHS and voluntary sector to try to tackle,educate and improve both suicide (especially among young males ) and depression.
Perhaps if we did’nt have opportunists and negative reporting (see any BBC Scotland report ) and our general MSM constantly churning out bleak doom laden messages ,perhaps if schools and (councils ) made the pupils their priority instead of a target group (think ,the teaching and incorporation of emotional intelligence as well as academic ),perhaps instilling some self belief from early years,younger people would stand a chance.
The fact there is in some areas a 3 month waiting list is BECAUSE CBT etc is successful.
Pingback: The End of Summer – Scottish Roundup