World Mental Health Day

Posted 09/10/2012

Today is World Mental Health Day, where the World Health Organisation aims to raise awareness about Mental Health issues. Its aim is to openly discuss issues surrounding mental health and to help break down the barriers that exist through lack of understanding.

This year’s theme is “Depression – A Global Crisis”. Depression affects more than 350 million people worldwide which is a shocking figure. Despite there being effective treatments available for the condition, access remains a problem which means that in some countries, fewer than 10% of people who need treatment receive it.

Sharon Allison, a Medical Injury Lawyer at Ashtons Legal says: “I have been involved with mental health cases for many years and it remains unsurprising to me, just how many people find it so challenging to access the right help when they need it.

The accessibility of effective mental health treatment services is a lottery. This of course should not be the case, but is a sad reflection on the budget cuts that we are seeing in the NHS every day.

Mental health is intangible and in my view, remains vulnerable to a lack of understanding and investment in treatment. Sadly, the consequences of poor mental health care can be catastrophic, which is something that I see all too often in the cases I deal with.

I encourage the work that the World Health Organisation are doing to try to raise the difficult issues associated with mental health problems and hope this leads to a greater awareness and investment in treatment.”If you have a query relating to a mental health/medical injury case, please do not hesitate to contact Sharon Allison or any member of the Medical Injury team on 01842 752401.