Yes, my World Mental Health Day post is late but – somewhat ironically perhaps – my mental health has been so bad recently that, on World Mental Health Day itself, I couldn’t actually get out of bed or engage with anyone or anything. But I did want to share some thoughts about this day before we leave it too far behind…
I’ve been struggling with the themes for World Mental Health Day for several years now and this year turned out to be no different. When it was announced that the theme was to be ‘Mental Health in the Workplace,’ I could barely suppress an eye roll. It is, of course, a valid cause: anyone struggling with their mental health should be able to go to a designated person or department and get whatever support they need. But, if I’m honest, I feel like this is something that should already be in place, something that should fall under the Equality Act. I also can’t help thinking that mental health support in the workplace isn’t an area that an awareness day can actually create change around: that’s on each individual workplace. So, on a societal level, it requires very little work (and, in my opinion, nothing is likely to change – as cynical as that sounds).
And this brings me to my ever-growing frustration with World Mental Health Day: it feels increasingly performative. The themes and call to action are vague at best and, at this point, the day itself is just lacking inspiration and innovation. As far as I can tell, there’s no campaign, very little effort to fundraise, and – honestly – I wouldn’t even know it was happening if I didn’t have these days noted in my planner. Then the day comes around and it’s all empty, performative platitudes on social media before everyone forgets again. Cynical, I know, but that is my experience of World Mental Health Day every single year.
I also feel the need to point out that this year’s theme feels, at least, somewhat ableist: there is a massive group of people who are unable or who have never been able to work due to mental ill health and this theme excludes them without a second thought. The irony of this would be laughable if it wasn’t so depressing, considering how desperate the UK government is to force disabled and mentally ill people into the workforce – regardless of the damage it will do to this group of people. This callous, single-minded approach strikes terror in the hearts of every single person I know who is part of this community. This is an area where a focussed, passionate campaign from The Mental Health Foundation could actually do some good. Time and money and effort put into improving the mental health services and support systems, and therefore the mental health of those not currently able to work, would allow so many people to work, whether it be after time off or for the very first time.
Before we go any further, I do just want to note that, personally, I think that our current capitalist model of work is abusive and exploitative and damaging and that there are so many other systems that would benefit both the individual and the industry they work in but, for the sake of the theme and this post, we’ll continue on the basis that it isn’t as horrific as it is (otherwise I will literally spiral into a pit of despair).
The point I’m making here is that I don’t know anyone who’s been unable to work due to mental ill health, whether that’s for short or long periods of time, who doesn’t want to contribute in some way, whether that’s to a specific workplace or industry, to society as a whole, or simply to the needs of their family and community. The number of people on benefits who don’t feel any inclination to work or who are faking in order to get benefits is a lot smaller than we were brainwashed – by The Conservative Party – to believe. I fully believe that human beings want to help and create and contribute and, if the mental health services were better and allowed more people to access support, more people would be doing those exact things.
But, of course, helping those with life-altering mental health struggles is a lot harder and requires a lot more time and effort and money and, at my most cynical, I feel like these areas are being avoided by organisations like The Mental Health Foundation because they require a lot of all of those things. Real change requires more than downloadable social media graphics and tweeting clichés.
I’m tired of the performances, of the empty promises. Maybe it’s my autistic, black and white thinking but I just don’t understand why improving the mental health services isn’t a priority since ANY improvement would make a significant difference. This seems to be the most obvious, most efficient solution, even if it isn’t the fastest. Especially, as I said, ANY improvement would create positive change. And the more work that goes into these services, the more people they can help and, therefore, the more people there will be returning to the workplace (given that that seems to be the government’s ultimate priority, whereas mine is simply that more people are able to access support and hopefully improve their mental health, maybe even recover from certain mental illnesses). I’m sure it comes down to money – because it always does, doesn’t it? – but this seems like such an obvious solution with such clear long term benefits. I just don’t understand and I’m tired of workplaces, healthcare professionals, organisations, and government caring so little about such a big group of people that they are responsible for.
And because this has been a very cynical and depressing post, here is a picture of my dog – we all know how good animals are for our mental health, even if only for a momentary boost…
