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The world is facing a mental health crisis. The annual cost of mental illness to the UK economy alone – including the lost productivity of those living with conditions, and the unpaid carers who often look after them – is reckoned to be nearly £120 billion, or 5% of the UK’s annual GDP. More importantly, the life expectancy of a person with a severe mental illness is around 20 years lower than average – and that gap is getting bigger.
To better understand these complex challenges – and the potential solutions – Insights is launching a new series, Tackling the Mental Health Crisis. Over the coming weeks, we’ll investigate how and why music is such an effective therapy for mental illness, whether people could one day be treated in their sleep, and much more. But to kick off the series, health historian Matthew Smith says we already know how to solve the mental health crisis – we just don’t care enough about society as a whole to do it.
We also take a look at why women in Iceland went on strike recently for the seventh time since 1975 and what their example means for the feminist movement worldwide. And as Cockney and the Queen’s English gradually disappear from London and the south-east, we take a listen to what’s replacing them.
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Advert for a universal basic income (UBI) scheme in New York, May 2016. Such schemes could offer significant benefits for recipients’ mental health.
Generation Grundeinkommen via Wikimedia
Matthew Smith, University of Strathclyde
Investing in people’s future mental health, based on the key socioeconomic factors underlying it, is the only way to address this rising problem.
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A woman participate’s in Iceland’s women’s strike on October 24 2023.
Heiðrún Fivelstad/Iceland's federation of public worker unions (BSRB)
Lauren Bari, University College Cork
Longstanding concerns like the gender wage gap remain important but second-wave feminism must listen and evolve to continue to protect and promote women’s concerns.
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Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock
Amanda Cole, University of Essex
Accents are constantly changing.
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Politics + Society
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Anne Lene Stein, Lund University
Peace activists were among the victims of the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7.
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Tom Harper, University of East London
Beijing is happy to partner up with religious-led nations if it is in its strategic interests.
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Arts + Culture
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Lindsay Middleton, University of Glasgow
Food was tied into multiple Halloween traditions that had love trouble at their core.
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Jane O’Connor, Birmingham City University
Britney Spears’ memoir illustrates once again the potential lifelong damage that can be caused by being a child star.
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Ahmed Honeini, Royal Holloway University of London
There are so many pointless references in this show that a lot of the meaning gets lost.
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Environment
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Grace Augustine, University of Bath; Birthe Soppe, University of Innsbruck
The oil and gas industry is struggling to retain talent – here’s why.
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Health
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Lucy Collins-Stack, University College Cork; Aideen Sullivan, University College Cork
This centuries old martial art was shown to reduce the severity of symptoms in the long-term.
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Science + Technology
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Luke Thorburn, King's College London; Aviv Ovadya, Harvard University
Algorithms have been blamed for dividing society. What if they could support social cohesion instead?
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