Is Awareness Enough
As regular readers of my blog will know I am a great believer and advocate to get mental health to be a national discussion and to take it from out of the shadows and bring it into the light, like any other health issue. Over the years, people, celebrities and even the government have taken to the idea of mental health awareness as a means of doing this.
I think the time has come to start asking ourselves, is awareness enough? I say this because it is essential, obviously, to be aware of the issues which impact our lives and mental health is certainly amongst the most important of them. I am concerned that there is a temptation to say “Ok we have awareness, job done”
Actually, awareness is only the first step in the process, now that people are more aware, the NHS, the private sector and the third sector need to be doing something about it. We need to move to a more integrated approach to our health care and putting mental health at the forefront of this. As I often tell clients, physical health without mental health is not being healthy. It is my hope that a dialogue can begin as to how we can make awareness equate into positive action.
