Mental health in the United Kingdom

A 2017 survey found that 65% of Britons have experienced a mental health problem, with 26% having had a panic attack and 42% saying they had suffered from depression.

[1][2] Surveys have found that mental health problems have been on the rise since 2000, although growing awareness may also be a factor, and there are some counter trends such as a decline in suicide.

Among C-suite executives, 69% reported experiencing work-related stress, with over half (54%) facing burnout or exhaustion, leading to 16% taking extended leaves of up to three months.

[6] Work-induced stress manifested as regular anxiety and panic attacks for 54% of respondents, while 47% reported physical symptoms such as heart palpitations and headaches.

[16] Between 1998 and 2017, children and adolescents living in deprived areas were more often prescribed antidepressants while Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) teenagers were less likely to receive prescriptions than their White peers.

Tier 4 is for children and young people with serious problems and care takes place in day and inpatient units.

[31] The numbers of patients attending accident and emergency departments due to psychiatric problems rose by 50% between 2011 and 2016 and reached 165,000 in that year, amounting to as many as 10% of A&E visits in some trusts.

However, as of 2019, units are rare, they often do not reduce emergency department visits or psychiatric admissions and generally cost more to run than the savings they generate in the short term.

Marjorie Wallace of mental health charity Sane, said "cuts to services across the country continue and people seeking help are still being failed".

[35] In December 2019 the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group reported that 2,250 people with special needs were detained in long-stay NHS accommodation.

[40][41] Among the suggested possible reasons why GPs are not following the guidelines are the difficulties of accessing talking therapies, long waiting lists and the urgency of treatment.

[40][42] According to some researchers, strict adherence to treatment guidelines would limit access to effective medication for young people with mental health problems.

YoungMinds and Agenda claim restraints are "frightening and humiliating" and "re-traumatises" patients, especially women and girls who have previously been victims of physical and/or sexual abuse.

[45][46] In June 2013 the UK government announced that it was considering a ban on the use of face-down restraint in English mental health hospitals.

In England, legislation includes the power to admit those accused of crimes to be detained as restricted patients if certain conditions are met.

[48]: 4 NHS Improvement began plans to help trusts in England integrate mental and physical health care in June 2017.

The County Asylums Act 1808 permitted, but did not compel, Justices of the Peace to provide establishments for the care of "pauper lunatics", so that they could be removed from workhouses and prisons.

Over 17,000 of the paupers were in county asylums or on contract in licensed houses, about 7,000 were in workhouses, while a similar number were living 'with friends or elsewhere'.

Any person who had been a patient in any type of mental hospital during the previous five years could enter a licensed house as a voluntary boarder.

[53] In 1870 there were about 46,500 poor law mental health cases: 25,500 in county asylums, 1,500 in registered establishments, 11,500 in workhouses and the remainder boarded out with relatives.

Rising numbers of patients, especially the elderly, caused a shift in policy away from institutions and towards day centres and community care.

[56] This marked a shift towards Care in the Community, the British version of deinstitutionalisation, which was given further impetus by a series of scandals over long-stay hospitals from 1968 onwards.

[60] In September 2023, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer scrapped the position of mental health minister from his Shadow Cabinet.

[62][63] The CEO of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BCAP), Anna Daroy, responded saying that it, "shows a disappointing disregard for the nation's mental health and a worrying lack of foresight about one of the major issues facing the UK now and over the coming years, particularly among young people".