Found Deceased UK - Victoria Taylor, 34, last seen at home 9am, Malton North Yorks, 30 Sep 24.

[Grouse]

I would expect that it was because there were even more serious cases requiring support than Victoria's. The reality is that the UK has experienced an explosion in mental health issues in recent years and there simply aren't enough resources for everyone.

Lockdown in 2020 and 2021 has been a factor in this (and I would be interested in hearing whether it has had a similar impact in other countries which locked down for varying periods). There has also been an incredible rise in mental health issues amongst tweens and teenagers, especially around anxiety, bullying, school refusal and similar problems, which is largely being driven by social media and (IMO) by changes in how adults have been parenting children and young people over the past 20 years.

The reality is that the NHS cannot afford to meet an open-ended demand by an infinite number of people. Nor can there be sufficient trained professionals to meet that infinite demand.

That may be true but I don't believe these kind of failings are solely due to funding and resources. The going "round in circles" comment from Victoria's sister is the kind of thing we hear so often and points to dysfunctional organisation, which I'm sure many of us have observed with the NHS - I certainly have. That sort of thing often takes up more resources not less.

So it is possible that Victoria was failed by the system as her family believe.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

That may be true but I don't believe these kind of failings are solely due to funding and resources. The going "round in circles" comment from Victoria's sister is the kind of thing we hear so often and points to dysfunctional organisation, which I'm sure many of us have observed with the NHS - I certainly have. That sort of thing often takes up more resources not less.

So it is possible that Victoria was failed by the system as her family believe.

Funding is only part of the issue, albeit a significant one. The reality is that the UK simply does not have enough clinicians trained in the sort of mental health support required to meet the demand, and in practice we never will have.

It's not just about adults with depression and teens with anxiety, its about thousands of young men developing psychosis due to weed use, the increasing numbers of elderly people with various forms of dementia, the impact on the education service of the vast increase in children being diagnosed with autism and ADHD, etc, etc, etc.

If we had half the population providing mental health support to the other half, it probably still would not be enough.

There's also the problem that the mental health system is bogged down with individuals caught in a revolving door of starting treatment, improving, stopping treatment because they decide they no longer need it, deteriorating and ending up back at square one. Mental health problems are just so intractable.

 

[sunspun]

Is it possible to update the thread title to note the outcome of this case?

 

[Alyce]

Is it possible to update the thread title to note the outcome of this case?

I've sent an alert to the Mods, asking for a Title update

 

[Dotta]

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