Government to spend £1 billion on Recruiting Mental Health Workers in the NHS

The spotlight on mental health is in the news yet again.

With sexual harassment claims at work on the rise, the government has announced that they’re going to spend an extra £1 billion on recruitment in the NHS of mental health workers in the UK.

This amount is reported to go towards an already £1.3 billion budget committed in 2016 to transform provision.

In practice, raising a grievance to your employer is still a taboo subject.

In recent press, we can see how hard it must be to pursue a career and risk it all due to a wrongdoing employer.

However, in the long run, raising a grievance may help future significant consequences to an employees mental health.

For instance, the Mental Health Foundation reported that one in six adults had a common mental disorder and mixed anxiety and depression has been estimated to cause one-fifth of days lost from work in Britain alone.

Further, statistics from the foundation states mental health and behavioral problems (e.g. depression, anxiety and drug use) are reported to be the primary drivers of disability worldwide, causing over 40 million years of disability in 20 to 29-year-olds.

Workplace stress and anxiety

As medical and scientific knowledge has advanced significantly in the last few years, the principle of the employer’s liability in occupational stress claims has developed in the law.

There is arguably still a lot of room for improvement and development possible in this area of law.

Until recently, there was no relief available for the employee who suffered psychiatric injury arising from work-related stress.

The attitude changed the precedent being set in the Hatton guidelines (Hatton v Sutherland 2002) following the awareness of stress at work claims, a positive step in law-making history.

The challenging aspect of creating a robust workforce in mental health services is arguably to do with the recruitment and training.

However, it is comforting to see that the government are raising awareness to tackle mental health as a growing public health concern, in light of the significant increase in the population needing mental health support.

As such it is great to be a part of supporting this by working in the Stress at Work department here at Oakwood Solicitors.

The increasing awareness by the government on tackling mental health issues will hopefully address the gaps to be filled when it comes to the duty of care owed to people undergoing unreasonable pressures at work.

If you have been left overworked and offered little support, you may be eligible for compensation.

Speak to our Stress At Work department for your non-obligation consultation to discuss further: 0113 200 9720