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There’s a long way to go before we have communities that truly care for people severely affected by mental illness. For Mental Health Awareness Week, we want that to change.
Those of us experiencing mental illness live in an unequal society. There’s no two ways about it. Stigma. Discrimination. Lack of support. Limited access to housing, employment and social security. It doesn’t make good reading.
Some things are moving in the right direction. We should have a new Mental Health Act soon, after over four decades of waiting. The NHS is working hard on a community model of mental health care. And stigma continues to decrease around mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.
But, put simply, it’s not enough. Those of us living with mental illness continue to be left behind. We have a shorter life expectancy than the rest of the population. Rising numbers of us continue to be detained under an outdated Mental Health Act. And amid a cost-of-living crisis, the government is considering billions of pounds worth of cuts to the social security system.
Suicides are at their highest rate this millennium. Lives are being lost. This cannot go on.
But there is hope. Your support enables us to continue to help more lives severely affected by mental illness each year. From our services and support groups, to our website and our social media pages, we continue to create communities that truly care for people living with mental illness. And we’ll never stop.
So, for Mental Health Awareness Week, be part of the solution. Help us turn awareness into action.
Because the only way we can create communities that care, is together.
