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Additional funding for recession worker’s depression

By editor ⋅ March 10, 2009 ⋅  Printable version ⋅

Additional funding for NHS trusts in England has been announced by Health Secretary Alan Johnson and Work and Pensions Secretary, James Purnell. The money, £13m, is to be used to fund psychological support for systems for workers facing unemployment, debt and relationship breakdown, as recession starts to take a toll on the mental heatlh of workers.

The plan will involve training additional psychotherapists and specialist nurses, and establishing psychotherapy centres in each NHS trust by the end of 2009. These centres will be linked into an advice network consisting of Jobcentres, doctor’s surgeries and the NHS Direct telephone services The network will be staffed with support personnel, counsellors, and psychotherapists, and will be initially accessed through Doctor’s surgeries, however, the longer goal is to have a system of self-referral.

Regular predictions of long term mental illness associated with the recession, along with expected problems in getting workers back to work after absence have clearly spurred the UK Government into action. Alan Johnson said “In the current economic downturn, the potential exists for more people to become anxious or depressed. If someone is feeling down after losing their job, the best solution is a new job and we are helping people find them wherever possible. But, in some cases, depression and anxiety can be a barrier to getting another job

Current figures put around 6 million UK adults as suffering from depression or anxiety, and many of these are on incapacity benefit. In addition, around 40% of long term sickness benefit claimants are know to be affected by stress. The CIPD’s 2008 Absence Survey put mental health and stress as the number one cause of long term absence from work for non manual workers.

Work and Pensions Secretary, James Purnell, said it was vital to tackle the issue as soon as possible. “We know pushing people onto inactive benefits can lead to a lifetime of dependency. We are working across government to give the help people need to stay in, or get back to, work.”