Mental Health
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in” - Desmund Tutu.
I came across this powerful speech once whilst on a safeguarding course with Leicestershire Police and it hit a cord with me immediately. Not just to use when supporting young people but for society as a whole and particularly around mental health.
A study by the Centre For Mental Health estimates the total cost of mental ill - health in England in 2022 to be a colossal £300 billion. This is a staggering amount and a huge dent in the UK economy.
According to the Centre For Mental Health, findings suggest that the annual costs of mental ill - health has been increasing steadily over the past 20 years.
I can only envisage this figure continuing to increase unless we start to come together and tackle this head on by carrying out timely and effective interventions. The Centre For Mental Health is calling for a comprehensive 10 year mental health strategy focussing on 3 priority areas; Prevention, Equality and Support.
A separate study carried out in 2023 by AXA UK and the Centre of Economic and Business Research suggests work related stress and burnout is currently costing UK economy £28 billion a year and resulting in 23.3 million sick days a year.
Observing this from the the outside looking in and recently coming from an education background, although I find these figures alarming, I’m not surprised. I can only assume that these figures are made up largely by public sector workers and small and medium sized enterprise businesses.
To try put these figures in a decline we need to collaborate and work collectively and use the Centre For Mental Health’s support strategy. If you’re in a leadership position for an SME or any business please reach out. Likewise, if you work within the public sector and feel your service could use support I want to hear from you.
I’m a small organisation and my mission is to support. Using proven stress / mental resilience support techniques and working with in house interventions, I believe MH Yoga & Coaching can offer a tiny piece for this societal jigsaw.
If you or your organisation feels like you could use the support, please contact to begin the process of collectively placing a wellbeing framework around your organisation and its people.
Michael
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