(UK) Mental health minister: "Autism, ADHD are part of natural diversity of human life"
Minister for Social Care and Mental Health, Alison McGovern, delivered a speech at the Fonagy review launch event hosted by Rethink Mental Illness.
McGovern:
I want to begin by thanking Rethink for hosting us here today, and to thank especially Mark Winstanley on his upcoming retirement after more than 40 years at this incredible charity. Thank you, Mark, for all you have done to improve the quality of life for people severely affected by mental illness.
And I’d like to thank Professors Peter Fonagy, Sir Simon Wessely and Gillian Baird, and the many researchers, practitioners, experienced people and organisations who contributed to this important review.
Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day, and so publication of this review is a good way to mark the occasion.
It provides an important foundation for all the work we need to do to improve mental health and wellbeing across the whole country.
This review finds conclusively that there is more mental distress, especially for the young, and especially for young women.
And that is made worse in part because, as Peter Fonagy says, the cacophony of voices now available to a young person - most of them digital, many of them confident, few of them accountable - has made the ordinary developmental process of understanding oneself far harder than it was for previous generations.
But this generation is not weaker or less resilient than those that have gone before.
What has changed are the pressures they face.
[Redacted political content] Just when growing up got harder in the social media age, their support was stripped away.
In other words, it’s not their fault. It’s ours. . . .
Autistic people and people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have just the same right to work and to be included in society as everyone else, and it is a fundamental good when we make that happen. . . .
ADHD and autism
But that support must begin with getting the basics right, because nobody should be left with questions about whether they have been assessed in the right way, and whether they can have confidence in their diagnosis and in the care that follows.
Unlike mental ill health, autism and ADHD are part of the natural diversity of human life - neurodevelopmental conditions that occur from birth or during childhood. They can have a significant impact on people’s wellbeing, but with the right support we could do so much to help people with those conditions achieve fulfilling lives.
The review raises serious concerns about the lack of regulation for ADHD and autism assessments. It calls for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to regulate all assessments and an end to direct advertising of NHS-funded assessments.
Comments