Forty years ago, on 1 March 1985, Centre for Mental Health was established as a charity, as the National Unit for Psychiatric Research and Development. A lot has changed in that time, fortunately including our name. But as we reach this milestone, our purpose and ambitions are as important as ever, and the need for our work as pressing as it has been at any time.
For our first 25 years, the Centre was funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts. Since 2010, we’ve been independent, our funding drawn from grants, donations and commissions for our research, analysis, training, networks and campaigns. Every penny we spend is earned from the work we do, and dedicated to achieving our purpose.
What drives us most deeply is a relentless determination to tackle (and reduce) mental health inequality. We’re under no illusion about how hard that is in practice. Mental health inequalities are social and economic inequalities. They are manifestations of deeply rooted injustices in our society, and societies worldwide. So rooting them out very often means going against the grain and pushing for changes that challenge power structures and assumptions about what’s okay.
Our independence is at the heart of how we do that. While we’re passionate about tackling inequality and injustice, we’re dispassionate about the solutions, and we’re constantly seeking out new evidence about hidden or unacknowledged inequities.
We know it’s not right that the poorest children face four times the risk of mental ill health before they leave primary school. It’s not right that people from racialised communities in the UK have poorer mental health and worse experiences of mental health services. And it’s not right that half of people with a severe mental illness are in food poverty, and face a life expectancy gap up to two decades long. These are but a few of the inequalities that cause so much distress and disadvantage and that we are determined to tackle.
Our 40 years of experience has also shown us that things can change, and solutions can be found. Community mental health services were still establishing themselves in 1985 as alternatives to long-term hospitalisation for people with a severe mental illness. Access to psychological therapies remained a postcode lottery until the late 2000s. Mental ill health was not discussed publicly, or if it was it was through stigmatising narratives and images (many of which sadly persist to this day, albeit less explicitly most of the time).
Now, as a society we talk about mental health and mental ill health routinely. Schools teach children how to stay well, and most have at least some mental health support available when it’s needed. Employers take the mental health of their workers more seriously than before. Most mental health services are now provided in communities, close to home, and more people with mental health difficulties are getting effective help to get paid work when they want it thanks to the expansion over the last 20 years of Individual Placement and Support.
But there’s still a lot that needs fixing. It’s evident that over the last decade in particular, mental health in the UK has got worse, most notably since 2020 and among younger age groups. We have more mental health services, seeing more people than ever before, but the need for them vastly exceeds what’s available. So long waits or high thresholds for support are imposed to suppress demand – often with costly consequences for those turned away or made to wait, and those around them. The quality of care still isn’t always as good as it should be, and inequities in provision remain unacceptable.
For people living with mental ill health, life is still made unfairly difficult. Not only is life much shorter, it’s made harder in almost every aspect. And the mental health services people get don’t always meet their needs. Black people still experience the oppression and injustice that happens every day in society in mental health services, too. Autistic people are still told that mental health support isn’t adapted to their needs. People with co-occurring conditions, such as long-term physical illness or substance use, are told their needs are ‘too complex’ or they are just not offered any help at all for their mental health. Older people’s mental health is simply ignored.
We know that’s not good enough. And we know we have a lot to do to highlight both problems and solutions, and bring about the changes that need to happen. We also know that we have to ask ourselves questions about how we’re working. Tackling mental health inequality means facing up to inequities in the way mental health research has been conducted over many years, and seeing how white supremacism and colonialism have shaped the society we’re part of and the ways mental health has been addressed for generations. How we work is just as important as what we do, and we’ll keep on learning in the years to come.
We’re dedicated to the task ahead. With our partners in other charities, communities, public services, business and civil society, and the people whose living experience drives us to make a difference, we will keep striving for mental health equality for as long as it takes. Can you help us make better mental health for all a reality in the years to come? Please consider donating £40 today to bring us closer to a mentally healthier future.
