Battleground Yorkshire: Britain's mental health has taken a dive

“That's been a case of something that we've seen quite gradually over time, but more sharply during the pandemic and in the cost of living crisis.”

Despite this rise in demand being matched by funding over the past 5 years, NHS services are still not fully able to cope, partly due to the fact that other services in the community, which have helped shoulder the burden of the NHS have disappeared from local areas.

“People are finding it just as hard to get access to help because more people need help,” says Mr Bell.

“A lot of the things that helped keep people well, things like support in schools, social care, youth services, early years services, they've all been reduced through years of austerity.”

Despite the nation’s mental health deteriorating, there are many in the UK who will still see it as a fad, with younger people viewed as weaker and unable to “just get on with it” like previous generations have. Though this is starting to change, some of this stigma remains in politics, with the view that depression or anxiety is no barrier to work.

“We have to acknowledge that there is more mental health awareness and literacy now than there used to be, and overall, that's a really positive thing,” says Mr Bell.

“I suspect what happened in the past is people were experiencing mental health difficulties, but didn't feel able to say so, so they might say they have a physical health problem instead.

“That masking of mental distress is lower, particularly among younger age groups, and that is something which actually we should be celebrating.

“I think the idea that somehow people who are experiencing a bit of difficulty in life are somehow ‘claiming’ that they have anxiety or depression is a really unhelpful, and indeed, quite harmful suggestion.

“We know that if you have anxiety or depression, and you're diagnosed with that by a GP, that can be a really serious illness. It can have a major effect on your life, on your relationships, on your chances in school and work. It can have a big effect on your physical health.”

The solution to the crisis engulfing both young and old people in their mental health is not just to destigmatise it, but see the impact that his has across the board in society and therefore treat it the same way in building policy.

“So first thing is to have a cross-government plan, make a commitment to have a proper mental health plan, not just for the NHS, as important as that is, but for how the government is going to support the mental health of the people living in this country,” says Mr Bell.

“They can do that through a number of ways. First of all, having a commitment to have a real plan that sets out the steps that all the government departments are going to take to improve mental health and well being.

“So, what the Department Health and Social Care will do to invest in mental health services, and to make sure we keep that that that funding coming to to expand and improve the quality of the support people get; to look at what Department of Work and Pensions can do to make sure our benefits system is fairer towards people living with a mental illness; to look at how the Department of Education can make schools more mentally healthy, and so on and so forth.

The simple thing would be to implement a mental health policy test, it's a really simple but compelling idea. Any new policy that comes out of government, you just have a simple test that says ‘what will this mean for people's mental health?’

“If that simple change, which will cost virtually nothing in government was made, we could have a system where all government decisions were produced on the basis of understanding ‘what will this mean for people's mental health and well being, and how can we make sure our policies are the best they can possibly be?’