Emeritus Prof Christopher May1d ago

As Roy Lilley (NHSManagers.net) argues:

'The real growth [in the problems of public health] is in the vast middle ground. Millions of people who are not acutely ill, but not entirely well.

People dealing with anxiety, stress, poor sleep, financial pressure, job insecurity, loneliness.

People functioning, coping, but steadily ground down'.

The increasingly precarious, insecure capitalism our political class has facilitated is taking its toll on our mental health.

#capitalism #MentalHealth

Show threadHerefordrob1d ago
@ChrisMayLA6
I may be missing your point, but I don't think so. Even partnership has been colonised to the point of extraction.
Fascism doesn’t summon hate. It grooms despair. It identifies the wound, and then it infects it. By the time the hunt begins, the scapegoat already believes he’s the shepherd. This is the point of hierarchy and why patriarchalcapitalism has been the domination system for so long.
Show threadEmeritus Prof Christopher May

@Herefordrob

Well, its mainly Roy Lilley's point.... but I did agree with him;

I may be missing your point, but if you are saying that its actually capitalism more widely that's the problem & its hierarchical structure is what is really behind worsening mental health, I'd agree up to a point.

As someone who thinks there are varieties of capitalism, I think there are some forms where the balance of between social benefit & harm is not as bad as it is in the UK's current settlement.

Mar 31 at 8:02amWeb
Show threadHerefordrob1d ago
@ChrisMayLA6 Can you give any examples, please, of forms where the balance between social benefit & harm is not as bad as it is in the UK's current settlement?
Show threadRobert Pluim 🇪🇺1d ago
@Herefordrob @ChrisMayLA6 Almost any other Western European democracy qualifies, I think. They pay higher pensions, higher unemployment benefits, and fund their health services better than the UK. They also tax more, which will no doubt annoy some people (and they also suffer from wealthy people being able to escape said taxes)
Show threadEmeritus Prof Christopher May1d ago

@Herefordrob

any of the Scandinavian countries would be a place to start, and then also, perhaps the Netherlands?

Show threadStoneBear 1d ago

@Herefordrob

I'll second Professor May here. Scandinavia followed by the Netherlands, and I would add Spain to the list... I'm not sure how _much_ better Spain is, not having poked too closely, but the noises coming from that general direction are good... and the Netherlands, while far from perfect (a year in) are way better than the tales of woe I hear coming from across the Channel.

@ChrisMayLA6