When Thanet Clinical Commissioning Group took the decision not to recommission Thanet’s vital Thinkaction mental health hub, a spokesman claimed that we would be able to access the same services from other providers. In this letter to Thanet Gazette, I share a few home truths.
I was pleased to be quoted in this article on Thanet’s potentially deadly mental health crisis. But some of the context I provided was missing:
Poverty means people in Thanet are particularly badly affected by the running down of mental health services – with dire consequences.
Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are two to three times more likely to develop mental health problems – with possibly deadly knock-on effects. People experiencing severe and prolonged mental illness die on average 15 to 20 years earlier than the rest of the population.
The projected rise in severe mental illness in Thanet is 3.8% by 2020; in mild to moderate mental illness, it’s 5%. It’s clear that we need more mental health services not fewer.
The closure of Thinkaction means that if any of us experience mild to moderate health problems, such as anxiety, depression or stress, our GP will have nowhere to refer us.
This will put additional pressure on our already struggling doctors and cause misery for many people and their families.
