Question: with mental health issues rising, do you think there's enough help for the people out there or is there something more that can be done?

Peter Kinderman answered on 13 Mar 2020:

There’s a LOT more that can, and should, be done.
Mental health doesn’t really get enough funding – not compared to how much distress is involved, and the problems psychological issues lead to – but we also need to do things a little differently, and not just more of the same.
We need to look at the causes of distress – poverty, inequality, racism, homophobia, abuse, bullying, pressure (all of which impact on young people, of course), but then unemployment, poor housing, insecure and exploitative employment, violence, loneliness – and address them. That means looking at mental health, but from a social, not a medical, perspective.
We need to reform education – we (in the UK) don’t provide enough childcare, but (weirdly) we also put too much pressure on young people; SATs tests, 11-plus exams, formal education too early, too much focus on academic skills and not enough focus on social skills. Our class sizes are too large, we start too early in the morning (and finish too early in the afternoon), and we don’t really address the fact that one 5 year-old in a class could be 11 months younger than another child in the same class… and we know that labels like ‘ADHD’ tend to be given to kids that are struggling, but who are younger than others and who come from disadvantaged social backgrounds.
We need less emphasis on diagnosing ‘illnesses’ and prescribing medication (listen to this: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/does-mental-illness-exist/9130774) and more emphasis on prevention, on ‘social prescribing’ and on psychological therapies.
I’ve written a little about it here, too: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/our-turbulent-minds/201910/manifesto-mental-health