Policymakers need to focus on why people are seeking help for their mental health and whether adequate support is available.\r\n\r\nThat was the response of DAUK GP committee member Dr Rosie Shire to a BBC survey on mental health diagnoses by GPs.\r\n\r\nOf the 752 GPs who took part in the BBC’s research, which represented 1.9% of GPs in the NHS in England, 442 felt mental health problems were over-diagnosed a lot or a little.\r\n\r\nMore than 40% said mental health conditions were under diagnosed or neither under\/over diagnosed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The survey also found that 640 GPs felt the provision for children with mental health issues in their area was not good enough. Some 508 GPs felt the same about adult provision.\r\n\r\nDr Shire spoke to BBC News and LBC about the results.\r\n\r\nShe told the BBC: \u201cIt\u2019s not a surprise to anybody that the number of people seeking help for mental health conditions has increased.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere’s been an increase in mental health conditions since Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cQuite a lot of people said the first time they experienced anxiety or depression was during the pandemic.\r\n\r\n\u201cI think we need to celebrate the fact people feel able to ask for help, rather than criticising them for asking for help.\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd then look at why they are asking for help and what help is available for them?\u201d\r\n\r\nAsked whether neurodivergent conditions such as ADHD were over-diagnosed, Dr Shire said it was more likely that diagnosis was \u2018catching up\u2019 with the number of neurodivergent people.\r\n\r\nShe said: \u201cAdults, especially, often can\u2019t access reasonable adjustments in the workplace, or help and support without a diagnosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere’s no availability for things like CBT and coaching. They are mentioned in the NICE guidelines as a way to support people with ADHD, but they can’t get access to that unless they’ve got this diagnosis.\r\n\r\n\u201c(Being diagnosed can be) very validating for somebody to understand why they’ve struggled, or why they’re struggling. Is it just me, or is it something else?\u201d\r\n\r\nWatch Dr Shire’s BBC News interview again on the DAUK Instagram<\/a>.\r\n\r\nIn an interview with LBC, Dr Shire stressed the need to avoid stigmatising people who seek help for their mental health.\r\n\r\nShe said: \u201cLife is difficult at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you’re struggling to find work, you can’t afford food, then you’re not going to feel great about things.\r\n\r\n\u201cI think it’s about looking at what support is available.\u201d\r\n\r\nDr Shire highlighted the lack of timely access to talking therapies, with long waits leaving many people getting worse before treatment begins.\r\n\r\nIn response to a question about people not working because of their mental health, she said that, if someone was able to, then working could be helpful in recovery from any health condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She added \u2018people needed to be supported to work\u2019, including being allowed time off to attend medical and therapy appointments.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe need to look at the bigger picture,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy are people coming forward and how can we help them?\u201d\r\n\r\nListen again to her LBC interview on the DAUK Instagram<\/a>.\r\n\r\nThe most recent NHS survey on mental health showed more people have common mental health conditions now, with a 45% increase since 1993.\r\n\r\nIt found that and 20% of NHS activity is related to mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, mental health services only received 8.7% of the NHS budget in 2024\/25. This is set to fall in 2025\/26.\r\n\r\nDr Shire said: \u201cWithout adequate funding and support for people, it’s hard to see how we can expect people to overcome their mental health conditions.\u201d\r\n\r\nAll of our committee members are volunteers. They speak to the media and campaign on the issues facing doctors in their own time. Please support their work by joining DAUK<\/a> or donating to our GoFundMe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Policymakers need to focus on why people are seeking help for their mental health and whether adequate support is available. That was the response of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,59],"tags":[730,195,123,111,624],"class_list":["post-1464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-general-practice","tag-adhd","tag-bbc-news","tag-lbc","tag-mental-health","tag-nhs-funding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Struggling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bigger picture<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Mental health funding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n