Mental Illness: Ed Miliband speech

Mental Illness: Ed Miliband speech; Ed Miliband speech SOT - The Consequences of our Inaction The toll of all this neglect is enormous.In the trouble stored up over the years as minor problems become major ones. The extra physical healthcare necessitated by mental illness costs the NHS a further £10 billion a year, according to the London School of Economics. The criminal justice system also picks up the bill. Seventy percent of those in our prisons have a mental illness. But it is not just our public services that bear the burden. British business does too. In time off work. In unproductive days at work. Mental ill health costs Britain’s businesses almost £8.5 billion in sickness absence each year. The single biggest cause of long-term sickness absence. It costs almost £2.5 billion in replacing staff who are unable to continue at work. And it costs £15 billion in reduced productivity. That’s almost £26 billion a year. Or £71 million each and every single day. And think how little we talk about this major burden on business. Costs our economy cannot afford.So mental health is an economic as well as a social challenge.Our failure to act is a national failure.It’s one we must put right if we are to be a One Nation Britain, where everybody has a stake and we build shared prosperity.One Nation So can we do it? It is often hard for a country to admit that the time has come to confront new problems.Particularly when economic times are difficult. But our country has faced these kind of challenges before.Major unaddressed challenges that affect the whole country.Challenges that seem to too big to overcome.It was true in the 19th century.The speech that Benjamin Disraeli used in 1872 to launch the idea of One Nation was, in fact, about sanitation.He called upon Britain to rise to the challenge of public health.To take on the squalor in our towns and cities and to reject “unsanitary living conditions” wherever they were to be found.Because it was ...