A Nation on the Edge: The Real Cost of Ignoring Mental Health

A newly published report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (https://ifs.org.uk/publications/role-changing-health-rising-health-related-benefit-claims), makes for shocking reading as it brings into sharp relief the escalating and catastrophic cost of psychological distress to the economy, and society as a whole.

Since 2002, the proportion of disability claims related to mental health has nearly doubled, now making up 44% of the total. In just four years since the pandemic, the number of working-age adults receiving disability benefits has surged by 50% to 2.9 million and half of this increase is mental health related.

The government’s response, as voiced by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, suggests a belief that mental health issues are being over-diagnosed. Alongside discussions on cutting personal independence payments (PIPs), the proposed solution appears to be getting people back into work—most likely through expanded access to short-term NHS-approved therapies like CBT.

And yet in none of the discussions do we hear any analysis of why millions of people in increasing numbers are becoming incapacitated by an inability to cope psychologically with their circumstances.

The causes of mental suffering in society are multi-layered and complex. No doubt increased awareness, reporting and diagnosis play a part, but there is clearly something much more profound going on. We feel overwhelmed, for instance, by economic pressures – such as financial insecurity and rising costs of living; social and technological change – such as an always-on, superficial and cruelly judgemental digital culture, reduced face-to-face interactions, and tick-box cultures that dehumanize employees; and psychological and existential factors –such as declining religious belief, global instability, and a lack of overarching meaning in life.

Whatever the myriad reasons, societal pressures are making us increasingly depressed and anxious – and we often feel helpless to stop it.

So we need to look at the problem from the other end of the telescope – namely what does it look like to be mentally, psychologically and emotionally healthy in the face of a rapidly changing and challenging society? And in what ways can we change society to enhance mental health?

It is looking through this end of the telescope that led me to become a human givens therapist. Not only does its approach employ therapeutic techniques that get individuals back on their feet in as few sessions as possible but, much more importantly, it provides a framework for understanding and transmitting what it looks like to be mentally well, whatever culture we live in.

Just as we have physical needs that are non-negotiable: good nutrition; clean air; warmth etc, our ‘human givens’ include equally non-negotiable core emotional needs for remaining mentally stable. Our needs for security, a sense of control over our lives, community, love, status, achievement, privacy, nourishing exchange of attention, and strong sense of meaning and purpose are hard wired into our neuro-emotional system (that’s why they are ‘givens’).

We are designed to seek to get our emotional needs met and we have an internal guidance system that helps us achieve that goal – think of it as an internal Sat Nav system. Unfortunately, sometimes our Sat Nav doesn’t work as well as it should – perhaps the terrain we are navigating has simply become too complicated or toxic, or perhaps past experiences have conditioned the Sat Nav to take us into a cul-de-sac. Under such circumstances, the human givens approach is to provide a roadmap to help us orientate ourselves in the direction of better mental health and flourishing.

As a human givens therapist I work with individuals whose lives have become stuck; mired by anxiety, depression, past trauma, anger, addiction and much more besides. There is no magic bullet; each person’s case is unique, so we search rigorously for the most appropriate tools that will unlock our clients’ own resources to let more light into their lives, whatever their circumstances, using a holistic, psycho-social, science-based approach.

But many of their circumstances are beyond their control and these also need addressing. If we are serious about wanting to improve the mental health of the nation we need to embed within our workplaces and institutions a set of operating principles that provide the conditions under which people can flourish. Effective as it is in working with individuals, the Human Givens principles can be applied effectively to any organisation to ensure that the people who work for it are getting their needs met in balance and therefore maximising their potential.

It is a given that, whatever setting they are operating in, people who are able to meet their needs appropriately will be happier, more productive, more generous, and ultimately more able to help those around them to meet their needs better.

By getting back to basics, the human givens approach shows how to be a better parent, a better friend, a better colleague, a better boss and also a better politician and a better leader. It shows how to better understand ourselves, our family and our wider communities. That’s why the Human Givens Institute, whose training is accredited by the Professional Standards Authority, is on a mission to empower all levels of society with the resources to help people better meet their psychological needs and counteract the vast suffering and waste of human potential that mental ill-health is causing.

We all, government included, need to acknowledge the societal changes that are making it harder for people to be psychologically well. While increasing access to mental health services is undoubtedly a good thing, we also need to de-medicalise mental health, introduce human givens understandings into our schools and organisations, including local and central government, to empower our citizens to better meet their emotional needs and, ultimately, work collectively and individually towards building lives that work. If we are truly to tackle the mental health crisis, at all levels of society we need to remind ourselves of what it means to be human.