Nhs Positive Quotes

Capitalist realism insists on treating mental health as if it were a natural fact, like weather (but, then again, weather is no longer a natural fact so much as a political-economic effect). In the 1960s and 1970s, radical theory and politics (Laing, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, etc.) coalesced around extreme mental conditions such as schizophrenia, arguing, for instance, that madness was not a natural, but a political, category. But what is needed now is a politicization of much more common disorders. Indeed, it is their very commonness which is the issue: in Britain, depression is now the condition that is most treated by the NHS. In his book The Selfish Capitalist, Oliver James has convincingly posited a correlation between rising rates of mental distress and the neoliberal mode of capitalism practiced in countries like Britain, the USA and Australia. In line with James’s claims, I want to argue that it is necessary to reframe the growing problem of stress (and distress) in capitalist societies. Instead of treating it as incumbent on individuals to resolve their own psychological distress, instead, that is, of accepting the vast privatization of stress that has taken place over the last thirty years, we need to ask: how has it become acceptable that so many people, and especially so many young people, are ill?

She and fellow doctors were angered by the government’s positive messages about how well the NHS was coping. ‘I understand there’s a balance between not wanting to panic people, and I also understand about reputation management. But every evening at the [government’s televised media] briefing you just couldn’t recognise anything that they were saying. It was so discordant with what we were seeing. They’d made it all up.

Dr Power stood up. “Because your staff are not components that can be fitted in, or replaced when they are unpredictable, or when they are simply being human. Because our patients are not playing a game called ‘business’ with profit and loss and winners and losers. Because patients have no choice, but to be patients and it’s our privilege to be in a temporary position where we can help them. And, inevitably, when we ourselves fall ill; when we grow old, then we can only hope that we will receive the help we ourselves need in turn. Because that’s the reality of life. And not some self-aggrandising game". - Dr Power, speaking in The Good Shepherd

The cooperative mentality can orient us to be egalitarian in our ways of thinking. Recent evidence suggests that egalitarian attitudes produce more healthy responses when people are confronted with stressful social encounters than biased, competitive and non-egalitarian attitudes.13 There’s also growing evidence that fostering cooperative attitudes and behaviours in children and adolescents (in contrast to competitive and individualistic ones) promotes positive relationships, improved mental and physical health and higher achievements.14 In addition, it’s increasingly thought that cooperative groups will out-compete competitive/individualistic ones in the long term. In fact, business is finding out that the internet is a good source for problem-solving because people simply like to share their thoughts and ideas for free! It’s sad that, in the face of this, governments continue to buy into the business model that competition creates efficiency. Within the NHS, for example, we’re increasingly split into small competing groups called ‘business units’. Fostering high levels of cooperation would be far better.

Keep going,' they said. 'Try this rugby position,' they said. 'No no no, not like that, you're doing it wrong. It's not supposed to hurt but definitely keep doing it even if it's agony. What's formula? There isn't any in the hospital so if you don't get this right your baby will starve. You can't go home until you've figured out the latch. Let me check it again. No, position is all wrong. Unlatch him. I know he's screaming but unlatch him. Try again. No. Wrong again. He can't breathe. He'll get wind. No wonder he'd up all night with that latch. Does he have tongue tie? We don't bother checking for it but he's likely got it. If you want to get it checked you'll have to pay a private lactation consultant £280 to tell you he has it, and then another £280 to cut it, and oh, the NHS waiting list is three weeks long and your baby will die before then, but don't you dare use formula! Nipple confusion! You need to establish your milk supply first! Your post-natal depression will get worse if you stop! Keep going, keep going. Don't try using a bottle until it's way too late for the baby to accept the bottle. Oh dear, yes, now you can't leave your baby for more than three hours for about a year. Didn't anyone tell you that? Why didn't you introduce a bottle sooner? You're giving your child the best start in life though. Your entire life might've shrunk to a mile's radius from your front door, but at least the baby will never get sick, apart from all the times they get sick, and they'll have a higher IQ, even though, actually, it appears that evidence is overstated. Here's all the advice ever about how to start breastfeeding [...] Here's absolutely no advice on how to stop.