Kat Shore

As a drama therapist, I believe in the profound power of psychological therapy to heal pain. But no mental health intervention is going to be much use to someone whose world is falling to pieces around them – literally.

In 2010, the coalition government cut funding for social housing by 60 per cent.

In 2022, Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, reported that 4.2 million people in the UK needed social housing.

Some weeks at work, I spend more time writing letters to councils about people’s living conditions than planning their therapy sessions. The longer you work in mental health, the blurrier the boundaries between these tasks become. Ultimately, the goals are identical: reduce distress.

But eventually, you come to realise that an hour a week in a room with a mental health professional is only going to achieve so much if the person receiving the treatment has to go home and spend the remaining 167 hours of their week in a flat that they don’t feel safe in.

“As many people pointed out at the time, it wasn’t disabled people who crashed the global economy, but they were some of the first to pay for it.”

A mindful breathing exercise involves inhaling through your nose to fill your diaphragm, then slowly exhaling from your mouth as if you’re blowing out a candle. When you work in mental health, it can sometimes feel as though you’ve been presented with a burning building and asked to extinguish the flames with the same breath you use to blow out those imaginary candles.

The Welfare State Is Burning Down

In 2009, I started working for a creative arts charity that produced work by artists with learning disabilities. A little under a year into my job, the Cameron-Clegg coalition government was formed and began rolling out austerity policies that demonised people with disabilities. The artists we worked with began coming into our offices looking for support, accompanied by letters telling them their benefit claims would be reassessed.

At the same time, an accessible website we ran, designed to support people with learning disabilities to find paid employment, had its government funding taken away, and the site was closed down.

“I’ve seen how some schools choose to protect their outcomes over the lives of their pupils by kicking them out at the first opportunity before offering a more tailored approach.”

Not long after, Remploy, the disability organisation established to support people with disabilities to access employment, was dismantled and eventually sold off. Do I need to spell out the paradox here? Get a job or starve, but if you need help finding one, you’re alone. Seeing this injustice play out in real time was utterly infuriating. As many people pointed out at the time, it wasn’t disabled people who crashed the global economy, but they were some of the first to pay for it.

Education Is Burning Down

However, the cuts to support people with disabilities were just the beginning.

If you work in the public sector, you witness the terrible impact of cuts to public services daily. Is it any surprise that the need for children’s social care interventions has drastically risen – and, as such, the thresholds for support – when money for housing, education, health care, and adult social care has all been cut?

The impact of the increased pressure on schools to deliver top ‘outcomes’ (exam results) in combination with the cuts made to spending per child has been a disaster. I’ve witnessed how the money allotted to children with additional needs has been spent elsewhere within schools that are squeezed for cash.

I’ve seen how some schools choose to protect their outcomes over the lives of their pupils by kicking them out at the first opportunity before offering a more tailored approach. Whilst this might entail immediate expenses, it would allow them to thrive in the long run.

“this new Labour government must start by addressing the issues faced by those who were first screwed over in 2010 and haven’t stopped being screwed over since”

Of course, public sector professionals at the management level have the impossible job of balancing the needs of communities while also trying to meet government targets that aim to reduce costs and waiting lists, or else face being taken over by inadequate private sector alternatives. People work in the public sector because they want to serve their communities. Is it any wonder many professionals are leaving with burnout when their ambitions to create positive change are being thwarted at every opportunity? If we want passionate, skilled people to remain in their jobs, policymakers need to start listening.

The NHS Is Burning Down

The need for mental health services for under 18-year-olds has exploded in recent years, but the funding is not there to support them, and they face years sitting on waiting lists.

The drastic increase in referrals to children’s mental health services should come as no surprise. If children are going to school where there aren’t the resources to support them properly, then going home to unsafe accommodation to be looked after by a parent or carer who is not receiving the support they might need for their physical or mental health, guess what? Their mental health is going to suffer.

Now in power, this new Labour government must start by addressing the issues faced by those who were first screwed over in 2010 and haven’t stopped being screwed over since.

Help people who need it when they need it. Imagine how much money we’ll save in the long term. Imagine living in a country that actually works, where people can make empowered choices about their lives instead of being trapped, surrounded by flames with no way out.

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Featured image courtesy of Adam Wilson via Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.

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