NHS Mental Health Tells Patients To Pop A Pill And Join The Queue

It has become official - Britain is the capital of the world when it comes to failing mental health and the reason why we are all gaga in the UK? We have become a nation who thinks that popping a pill will solve everything

According to the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, the mental health service in the UK is failing it's patients more than originally thought. He has warned in parliament today of a failing service which is throwing people's lives away when "popping a Prozac pill" will have to do. It has become the answer to virtually all mental healthy problems in the UK. If you attend a doctor's clinic with complaints of depression etc, you get your 10 minutes of "it's the world we live in I'm afraid," and a prescription for pills - take one a day and you'll feel a whole lot better. Yet there are grave concerns that we are fast becoming a nation of pill poppers who simply can't stop. As Prozac, amongst other prescribed drugs are highly addictive, we keep taking them and take more and more as time wears on. The Liberal Democrats this week have managed to get their hands on some pretty depressing figures when it comes to the failing NHS. We shouldn't be at all surprised with the NHS becoming on big joke, yet when it comes to our state of mind, we kind of hope that the NHS would at least, get it right. The figures are incidental, waiting lists taken for some of the NHS's counselling and psychotherapy services. The lists are shocking. In most cases patients with mental healthy problems have had to wait as much as three years before receiving the treatment they desperately need. Two years is a long time, and if you have a mental health concern, a day is bad enough. These figures clearly show that lives are at risk. Yet Mr Clegg has stuck his neck out on the line here and it is certainly going to be a vote puller - he is almost promising that he will cut these two year waiting lists down to 13 weeks. At the moment, one can get hospital care at around 18 weeks, which is still not good enough. Speaking at a conference in St Albans in Hertfordshire, Mr Clegg told the audience,

"Britain has become the true Prozac Nation. I believe this trend has gone too far. We must cut the number of anti-depressants prescribed by doctors. Pills must not be a crutch for the wider issues in our society which cause mental health problems."

There has been a lot of ground work going on behind the scenes by the Lib Dems - good for them. They had originally questioned 100 NHS Trusts (governing bodies for hospitals around the UK) and in the 33 responses, they provided information about the standard psychology, counselling, psychotherapy and eating disorders help they already provide. The party had also manage to probe the Trusts for certain data under the Freedom of Information Act. They had collected in the longest waiting times they had, resulting in Psychotherapy and counselling services having the very longest times - some averaging around two years for some patients. The Lib Dems along with many of the Trusts insist they will cut down this extorsionate waiting list down to around 18 weeks - this is still too long for most cases. Yet let us make one thing clear - these waiting times are not for those who suffer with depression which, it would seem, is still not taken seriously enough. Depression comes under community care and it is these patients who get shoved a handful of pills and literally told to go away. This all appears to be excellent news for those suffering, yet it will only come into effect if the Lib Dems get in to power and as long as Mr Brown sits at the Helm, gluing himself to the front door of Number Ten, it is far from likely to happen. So how come these waiting lists are so incredibly long? Studies have found that more and more of us are taking prescription drugs for our mental health problems rather than getting counselling and proper treatment by the NHS. The price for drugs is tragically high. In 2006, a staggering 31 million prescriptions were written for Prozac - a number which has steadily risen over the last ten years. Although it has been recognised that a need for such drugs is still there and will remain there, it is meant to be dealt out as a added support - not a complete solo cure. Peaking on behalf of leading UK mental health charity, Mind, it's chief executive, Paul Farmer, told BBC News,

"Three years is too long to make someone wait for help that could transform their life, possibly even save their life. Scrimping on basic mental health services is a false economy. If someone can't get help when they first need it, their health will deteriorate, and they will require more intensive care later on."

Other mental health groups have also aired their concerns over the amount spent on Prozac proving that we have become such an addictive nation. Sane leading executive, Marjorie Wallace added,

"Only by treating mental illness as being as life-threatening as cancer or heart disease will we bring services to the front line and end the years of chronic neglect."

So until a state of depression can be taken as seriously as cancer, and let's face it - depression can lead in many cases to suicide and so if that isn't life threatening then what is? It is odd perhaps that the Department of Health have left us with such a laid back approach to the situation.

"We are continuing to work towards improving access to mental health services and specifically psychological therapies, where we know capacity is particularly challenged."

If £170m is about to thrown at psychological therapies, it can mean that around 900,000 will get treatment they need for depression and other forms of anxiety. Until then, the need for a better mental health service will leave us still, in an uncertain state of mind... .