Today, the mental health charity The Shaw Mind Foundation (SMF) and HealthUnlocked joined forces to promote HeaducationUK, a campaign calling on the government to make mental health education compulsory in UK schools.
Over 75,000 people have signed a petition in support of compulsory mental health education –SMF and HealthUnlocked have combined forces to ensure the petition receives 100,000 signatures by Wednesday 3 May.
There are time constraints because of the recently called election. Please sign and also share in your community if you think it would be suitable. The petition is open to British citizens or UK residents only.
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Clutter
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I am all for Mental Health awareness to be taught in schools - but not to the exclusion of the role good nutrition has to play. Iron - B12 - VitD - when low - can cause people to suffer with low mood. Young people today do not eat offal and other iron rich foods and have a processed diet in many cases which is sadly lacking in good nutrients. I really do not want young people being pushed onto medications that are not appropriate and have read that it could be a way that the pharmaceutical companies could be extending their claws and catching them younger and younger. Please reassure me this will not so .....
Family members thought one of my grandsons was depressed - he was very anaemic it was revealed later - along with low B12/Folate and VitD. And of course we must not forget the appalling way the thyroid is tested and again many young people will be missed. It breaks my heart ....
I suffered from severe depression for many years Clutter. It was hell because antidepressants messed with my head, and actually made me ill. Guess what, now I'm treating my thyroid and got my nutrition sorted out I might get the odd day thats bad - but not like it was and I can deal with it. I dont suffer so much from general anxiety disorder now either.
Its about time that mental health was given the importance it deserves.
So many girls are going vegan now. It almost seems to be a fashion. None of them look well or have any energy, physical or mental. If they're going to take such a drastic step they need to be acquainted with the pitfalls of inadequate nutrition.
But just thought that low FT3 can cause mental health and hope that this could be taken into consideration instead of Antidepressants. Agree with Marz that nutrition really does need to be taught in schools, along with bringing back domestic science which would cover this.
Any reason why an endo should be able to over rule a psychiatrist? I seem to recall there have been cases where T3 has been prescribed for treatment resistant depression. Other branches of medicine seem to understand the importance of T3 far more than the endos.
Edit: A google search for T3 treatment resistant depression brings up quite a bit on the subject.
The Society of Endocrinologists have said they are not in favour of thyroid replacement being prescribed to euthyroid individuals. Presumably psychiatrists and other consultants don't have to take notice and can prescribe T3 if they think it will be beneficial.
I agree with Marz . I'm dubious about the intention behind this. What exactly can children be taught? How to recognise depression so they go to the doctor? And get prescribed what exactly?
Even if there are lessons on the importance of nutrition, what will be taught? High carb, low fat to make more kids obese, foggy-brained and knackered, and make sure they develop Type 2 Diabetes even earlier?
There is a major initiative going on within the NHS called IAPT - Improving Access To Psychological Therapies - and it is being used to provide CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) and GET (Graded Exercise Therapy) to patients. Lots of money is being spent on this.
According to the Wikipedia article on the subject :
The aim of the project is to increase the provision of evidence-based treatments for common mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression by primary care organisations. This includes workforce planning to adequately train the mental health professionals required.[1] This would be based on a 'stepped care' or triage model where 'low intensity' interventions or self-help would be provided to most people in the first instance and 'high intensity' interventions for more serious or complex conditions. Outcomes would be assessed by standardised questionnaires, where sufficiently high initial scores (a 'case') and sufficiently low scores immediately after treatment (below 'caseness'), would be classed as 'moving to recovery'.
The problem with this initiative is that it is being used to dismiss patients' physical symptoms and tell them their problems are all in their head. Then they get sent to do CBT and are bullied into agreeing that their problems are all of their own making.
Many of us on this forum suffered anxiety and depression because we had a poorly treated or untreated problem with our thyroids. This problem is going to increase. Getting treatment is going to be made even harder. T3 has already been removed. Based on the research posted recently by helvella :
many people with subclinical hypothyroidism who get to 65 are likely to have their meds taken away from them (if they got any in the first place).
This was someone's experience of IAPT. The person has ME which is mostly assumed (by doctors) to be something suffered by people who are lazy and attention-seeking. People with ME are really despised by the medical profession.
I received G.E.T and C.B.T in 2013 and was told to expect to make a full recovery, as long as I followed their advice. When I started the treatment I was able to walk about 5 minutes most days. I was told to increase my physical activity by 20% each week. I started having difficulty and complaining that I seemed to be able to do less now that I was being asked to do more. I was becoming more unwell. I was told this was the crucial moment to keep pushing. My parents and I were warned from two consultants, one of whom told us they were an expert in M.E, that reading anything about the illness, contacting any charities or contacting any patients would maintain my illness and could contribute to me becoming more unwell. They both spent some time explaining how for severe long term patients it was their fault they hadn't got better and reading about the illness was part of this. This was the only advise my first consultant(s) gave to my parents who were asked not to come into consultations.
When I didn't get better I was told I had been measured as recovered. When I pointed out I had deteriorated to the point that I could barely walk at all I was told "Did it ever occur to you that you didn't try hard enough?". It was repeated again that learning anything about the illnesses could maintain it. I sent a letter to the clinic and consultant pointing out that they had measured me as recovered when I had objectively deteriorated and suggesting that they change the way of measuring recovery as it seemed flawed. When they showed me the fatigue scale and explained how they measured recovery. I naively sent a letter explaining how they could not draw any meaningful conclusions and suggestions for improvement (I was extremely hesitant as it seemed almost rude to point out but considering how obvious it was I thought it was a mistake made by the Scottish clinic). I was sneered at and told that this was how the PACE trial had measured recovery and therefore it had to be right and as though a mere 20 year old would be able to spot flaws that highly qualified doctors and academics from some of the U.Ks top universities (and it turned out themselves) had contributed to and I should see a psychologist as I was obviously anxious/distressed...etc, etc
Once someone has been through CBT and GET, some people are having their prescriptions taken away from them. (After all, they are cured!) and they are losing benefits because if they don't immediately get a job, they have clearly chosen to be ill and are workshy and they must be "persuaded" to get a job. This is done by removing benefits from them.
Another part of the IAPT initiative is the labelling of physical symptoms as "Medically Unexplained Symptoms". Anyone with a physical symptom which has existed for 6 months without any diagnosis and without any recovery is going to be told their symptoms are not real, they are all in their heads, they need anti-depressants and/or CBT.
I've posted this before and it needs to be posted again :
I caught a few minutes of a program called GPs Behind Closed Doors fairly recently - a re-run on one of the high numbered channels, so I have no idea when it was first shown. A young woman in her late 20s (?) was seeing the doctor about symptoms that I would have thought could have been fibroids, endometriosis, ovarian cysts - there were a few choices. After a couple of minutes describing her problems to the doctor the doctor suddenly pronounced "I think this is psychological". And I think she went on to prescribe anti-depressants.
I've rambled a lot. I don't want anyone to think I object to the idea of reducing the stigma of suffering from mental health problems. But I don't think any of the initiatives going on in the NHS are really geared towards doing that. They are all about tarring more and more people as workshy and "not really ill", and taking away meds and benefits, reducing the costs to the NHS and the government/DWP. They are trying to reduce the cost of the NHS so it becomes more profitable to private healthcare companies when privatisation is completed.
Very well said. I totally agree with you. And, I find the idea of Mental Health Education deeply disturbing. I just would not trust the people doing the educating, to be partial and open-minded. They're far more likely to tow to party of getting more and more - and younger and younger - people onto anti-depressants. I can't see how this is going to remove the stigma of mental illness. I can't see how it's going to help anybody. Except Big Pharma, of course.
Signed and shared. Any awareness of mental illness is a positive step and will help to reduce the stigma. If this alerts children and adults alike to seek support and look out for loved ones, colleagues and friends this is so very worthwhile.
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