- Face the future - 28th August 2026
- Tastey - 28th August 2026
- In the mind’s eye - 27th August 2026
During 23 years with the BBC, and in a 43 year journalistic career (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, highlighting new evidence has always been crucial, and nowhere is this more needed than in the state of mental health care today – where securing urgent appointments can be difficult.
These things are IMPORTANT!
Pithily Mark Rowland, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Mental Health Foundation (MHF), has described the situation very well when he declared about last year’s budget speech: “In a context of rising mental health needs…missing were clear commitments to increased funding for mental health prevention and support, which remain critical to tackling the UK’s mental health crisis”.
In Wales the situation could be particularly difficult, as the country has been hit extremely hard by de-industrialisation, and the jobless rate is higher than the UK average.
Both of these issues have an enormous impact on mental health.
It was reported that the level of unemployment in Wales was 5.7 per cent in the three months to September last year, when the UK rate is five per cent.
It is clear that worrying about where your next pay cheque might come from, has a terrible effect mentally.
Historically cash support for mental health has not been brilliant in Wales, and a report about it recently stressed this factor, especially in relation to younger people.
A disturbing document published by the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW), and Estyn emphasised this dreadful situation.
Their findings revealed that many children and young people struggle to access the help they need, outlining:
- Ineffective support: Some children and young people were missing out on timely and effective support.
- Gaps in specialist care: Despite shorter waiting times for initialChild and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) assessments, follow-up care remained a major challenge for all children and young people. This was particularly the case for those with complex needs, including neurodiverse young people, who were often left without care when needed.
- Disparity in service access: There were disparities with the eligibility criteria and thresholds for accessing CAMHS, leaving many families and professionals frustrated by poor communication and lack of clarity around how these decisions are made. Those who spoke Welsh were not easily able to converse in their language of choice for mental health care and support.
- Rise in crisis support: New initiatives like Sanctuary Spaces and Crisis Hubs were providing alternatives to emergency room care for children and young people in crisis, but high demand meant many were still only accessing support there when they reached breaking point.
- Funding issues etc: Significant funding concerns have emerged, there are poor communication between services, and coordinated care is lacking. The report calls for stronger partnerships between health and local authorities to ensure that children and young people get the right care at the right time.
The Chief Inspector of Care Inspectorate Wales (CICW), Gillian Baranski proclaimed: “Mental health support for our children and young people is not just a statistic; it’s a call to action. It’s deeply concerning that over half of Wales’s children and young people don’t know where to turn for help…”.
Quite apart from the failures in mental health support for younger people in Wales, the help for adults with mild to severe psychiatric needs has been little better.
One mental health charity stated worryingly on its website: “It is with a deep regret that we announce that Time to Change Wales, our national anti-stigma programme will come to an end on the 31 March 2025. This is due to not being able to secure continuation funding beyond this current phase. Since its inception in 2012, this programme has been instrumental in raising awareness, supporting individuals, and advocating for change in the way mental health is perceived and discussed across systems and society”.
Families of patients at Tawel Fan Mental Health Unit in Ysbyty Clwyd were told that their loved ones had been filmed crawling across floors (by a UK newspaper) before the building was demolished, and a report into the scandal in 2015 said that there had been “institutional abuse”.
The former First Minister of Wales (FMW), Mark Drakeford, was the Welsh Government (WG) Minister for Health and Social Services at the time of the scandal, so he is in the firing line.
After the revelations he apologised and said there would be an “urgent meeting”, which has always seemed to me the least that should have been done in the circumstances!
Sadly research today shows that it is not only a Welsh phenomenon – support for those with mental health issues is not good around the world.
One study, published in the Lancet offers the most comprehensive estimate to date of mental disorders’ prevalence in, for example, China, with 191 million cases in 2023 (equivalent to about one in seven Chinese).
That was 46 per cent more than in 1990, but after allowing for the country being older and more populous, the estimated prevalence was 14.6 per cent higher.
Anxiety and depression are the most common illnesses, while eating disorders have grown at the fastest rate.
Another paper in the Lancet, in 2021, found that of 1,007 Chinese surveyed with a depressive disorder, just 9.5 per cent got treatment, while a mere 0.5 per cent were treated adequately.
These failings are likely to have huge impacts, and not just for the families of those affected.
In June a private pilot crashed into Beijing’s tallest tower, killing himself, and investigators claimed the man suffered from anxiety along with suicidal thoughts.
In 2024 there was a spate of violent attacks in China, including vehicle rammings and stabbings against members of the public, and they, too, were blamed on mental health issues.
If ever the description ‘Cinderella service’ is apposite, it is in relation to mental health care – and regrettably new research today underlines this…
The memories of Phil’s astonishing award-winning career in journalism (when, apart from revealing his own mental issues, he often covered many health care controversies), as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
Tomorrow – how during that career, he it has always been central to emphasise changing tastes, and this is underlined (bizarrely) by the liking, or otherwise, for tea and chocolate!
