Among my cheering thoughts for the day:
A couple more human rights campaigners murdered in Chechnya in what must surely be state-sponsored violence, Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to still further house arrest by the Burmese dictatorship's kangaroo court, and our own government facing serious questions about collusion in torture with self-styled "Defenders of the Free World", the US federal government.
Meanwhile, our technology continues to progress exponentially, giving those who wield power ever-greater scope for the surveillance, control and destruction of their peoples and opponents. Of course the same defects in our nature and condition persist that have plagued humankind for millennia: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely; but couple this with the incredible technologies we are now developing and you begin to see that one day an absolutely corrupt power may be able to take absolute – and truly inescapable – control.
It is perhaps something of a cliche, but I am reminded of how the Party controls its populace in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four with the use of telescreens, ubiquitous machines that simultaneously bombard the citizens with propaganda while giving the secret police a window into every last room. I am drawn to reflect on how many among the upcoming generations have any awareness of the origin or original meaning of the phrase "Big Brother", in this age where we are seeing a similar death of privacy amid the wide-scale monitoring of telecommunications, viewing habits and internet use. And this is only part of the picture: by comparison with Orwell's vision (though remarkable), the technologies available to modern day secret police simply do not bear thinking about.
Moreover, and unless the evidence from my own social interaction with a diverse array of people deceives me, possibly unprecedented levels of ignorance and apathy are compounding the threat to civil liberties and human rights – the freedoms which so many of us (though still far, far too few) are able to take so utterly for granted. Indeed, most people seem blissfully unaware of how rare the freedoms we take for granted in the West are, both geographically and historically; unaware of the fragility of these freedoms – the way they are, by their very nature, besieged from all sides; and unaware of how important it therefore is to have a vigilant and engaged citizenry jealously guarding them.
Let us not forget that one of the greatest contemporary threats to humanity's freedom and wellbeing was homegrown in the West – in the same laissez-faire petri dish as the technologies which support it – I refer to the overweening power of the modern multinationals, their self-aggrandising subversion of democratic government and death-by-a-thousand-cuts warping of the rule of law, the world over.
So awesome are the levels of ignorance and apathy in the face of these terrible threats, that I'm sure that many who are involved in and passionate about safeguarding human freedoms and wellbeing must feel like The Hero of Haarlem, the fictional Dutch boy who saves his community from drowning by using his finger to plug a hole he notices in one of the dikes built to hold back the sea from engulfing the town. Unlike the story, however, human rights and civil liberties activists must feel like most of the other villagers are too busy shopping, voting for their favourite act on The X Factor and generally "staying positive" to heed their cries, and that of those who do notice the predicament, most are deciding with a shrug or a sulky outburst that it's all too complex to even begin to deal with, before themselves returning to the fairground. All the while more and more leaks are springing open in the dike.
It seems to me that now, more than ever, Orwell's nightmare future of "a boot stamping on a human face forever" is an imminent flood.
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For those with itchy plugging-fingers:
Amnesty International UK: Link
Liberty: Link
Today, the government launched the public phase of a major new consultation, New Horizons, focusing on how we should best care for the mental health of the nation over the next 10 years. Mind, the UK's leading mental health charity, calls this "a pivotal opportunity to move on from a model of mental health care based solely on delivering medical services, to a cross-government plan that approaches everyone’s mental well-being holistically, and considers the impact of social factors such as unemployment and debt.
During the last 18 months, the government has consulted "a wide range of people and organisations about their ideas for better mental well-being and better mental health care", and has produced a document pulling together their key findings which you can download now at:
Link
Having your say
As someone who has myself long been wrestling with a psyche prone to mood disorders such as anxiety, depression and social phobia – indeed the old black dog seems to haunt both sides of the family, doggedly "pissing misery-juice all over our brains", to quote Charlie Brooker's memorable phrase – this is of great interest to me, and so I took the opportunity to have my say online in the now-commencing public consultation, which you can do too here:
Link
Towards the Equanimous Kingdom
If they can make it work, then I feel strongly that enshrining this new holistic, preventative and nationwide approach can only be a good thing, and I found myself agreeing with many of the principles they have outlined. There were a few things I would like to see added or addressed though; I've reproduced some of my answers below to share these points:
1. What do you think are the three most important changes for mental health and mental health care in the next 10 years? And why?
[I have reproduced only one of my answers, as the other two were in line with their proposals.]
To ensure the agenda is moved forward by the appropriate mix of expert opinion and patient and public needs, ensuring that it is not warped by the agendas and influence of powerful, predominantly profit-driven organisations within the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
5. In your view, which are the most important areas in mental health services where value for money could be improved? And how should that be done?
Beating the Blues is a computer-based cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) program intended for individual completion and has been approved by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) as a proven and highly cost-effective aid to improving the emotional well-being of the wider population at risk from mood disorders. However, many GPs have still not heard of it, and I believe the majority of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) have yet to take it up:
Link
Similarly, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), a mixture of meditation practice and CBT, has a lot of evidence behind it for the treatment of recurrent episodes of depression; however access to classes and guided meditation CDs which facilitate the therapy is not widely available or subsidised:
Link
As a person who has had problems with repeated bouts of depression and anxiety, I have also found yoga practice to be very helpful, and think it would be very appropriate for classes to be subsidised for patients. I even believe it could have a strong positive effect on society as a whole if regular yoga or meditation practice took place in schools, as it would promote personal and interpersonal equanimity from an early age.
10. What do you think are the most important steps that Government can take to reduce the inequalities that affect our mental health? And why?
Many LGBTQQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning, for the uninitiated among us!) people continue to be left permanently scarred by bullying in schools and peer groups together with the – sometimes monstrously – hostile attitudes of their own families to their sexual or gender orientation. I believe that one of the great legacies of this Labour government (which I hasten to add has also overseen some resounding and terrible failures) has been improving this situation, but I think it is also clear that there remains much work to be done.
Anything the government can do to further the trend toward greater acceptance and respect (and failing that, tolerance and protection) for this cross section of society will continue to have a massive impact on the disproportionately high level of mental health issues experienced by LGBTQQ people, since in many cases the mental health problems they experience are a direct result of their historical (and continuing) persecution and marginalisation, particularly in their formative and most defenceless years.
I also think it clear that there is a growing underclass – born of an increasing divide in our society between its wealthiest and its poorest – who continue to pass on woefully inadequate levels of socialisation to their children (especially considering the ever-increasing, ever-accelerating complexity of modern society). Breaking this vicious cycle will be of the utmost importance both for the equality of the poorest in terms of their mental health, and for the good of society as a whole.
