{"id":18294,"date":"2019-06-25T10:14:16","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T09:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=18294"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:56:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:56:04","slug":"austerity-mental-health-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=18294","title":{"rendered":"‘People feel insecure’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Social justice will do more to improve people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mental health than medication and therapy, the UN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chief health envoy has said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr Dainius P\u0139\u00abras, the UN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s special rapporteur on health, spoke out\u00c2\u00a0on Monday (June 24) as he delivered a new report<\/a> on the social determinants of mental health to the UN human rights council in Geneva.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In an interview with the Guardian, P\u0139\u00abras said austerity, inequality, discrimination and other social ills were fuelling a mental health epidemic that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seen the prevalence of mental health conditions skyrocket by 40 per cent globally in the last 30 years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAusterity measures did not contribute positively to good mental health,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he told the Guardian<\/em><\/a>. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople feel insecure, they feel anxious, they do not enjoy good emotional wellbeing because of this insecurity situation.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe best way to invest in the mental health of individuals is to create a supportive environment in all settings, family, the workplace. Then of course [therapeutic] services are needed, but they should not be based on an excessive biomedical model.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

P\u0139\u00abras said that governments should invest in and promote better early education, a stronger welfare state and stronger unionisation of workforces to help tack the inequality and social exclusion that he says is driving rising rates of mental ill health.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In his report, P\u0139\u00abras linked trade unions with good mental health.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHistory shows that improving conditions in the formal and informal labour market and strengthening the accountability of employers depend on freedom of association or affiliation: the opportunity for meaningful relationships of mutual recognition with other workers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the report read. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bRelationships of solidarity, including through unionization to secure better pay, conditions and dignity at work, are critical to the promotion of mental health.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The UN envoy did not specifically single out the UK in his criticism of austerity \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he is yet to go on a fact-finding mission in Britain to report back to the UN \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but his report was emphatic about the role austerity-driven governments have played in exacerbating mental health crises across the globe.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

P\u0139\u00abras\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 report comes less than a year after a UN poverty envoy last November slammed the UK government and its austerity regime in a damning report<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After a Britain-wide fact-finding investigation, UN special rapporteur on poverty Philip Alston said the British government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s austerity policies were \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpunitive, mean-spirited, and often callous\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and have caused \u00e2\u20ac\u015bgreat misery\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After Alston\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s investigation which spanned two weeks, the rapporteur said he was shocked by the levels of child poverty in the UK. He called it \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnot just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner hailed today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s UN report linking social justice and mental health.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis report highlights what we have long been saying \u00e2\u20ac\u201c mental health is inextricably linked with our environment and our social institutions. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no coincidence that rising rates of anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions have risen in lockstep with austerity and the continued dismantling of the welfare state.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIsolation and a sense of inequality in an increasingly atomised society is an underlying cause of our mental health crisis and it can only be tackled when people feel they have a stake in their community and in their workplaces,” he added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why the government must end austerity, restore our once robust public services with substantial investment, and legislate to strengthen trade unions and collective bargaining. As the UN report highlights, not only trade unions do provide protection against a race to the bottom in pay and conditions but they also bring people together in common cause. Strong relationships forged in the fire of solidarity give people that sense of belonging that is the bedrock of good mental health.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social justice will do more to improve people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mental health than medication and therapy, the UN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chief health envoy has said.   Dr Dainius P\u0139\u00abras, the UN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s special rapporteur on health, spoke out\u00c2\u00a0on Monday (June 24) as he delivered a new report on the social determinants of mental health to the UN human rights council […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[76,404],"wps_subtitle":"Austerity and inequality fuelling global mental health crisis, says UN report","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18294"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25188,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18294\/revisions\/25188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}