5 November 2025

Credit: New Statesman

Britain’s mental health system is under incredible strain. Referrals for children and young people have doubled in five years, while more adults are out of work due to sickness than at any point since records began.

Cost of living, insecure or poor housing and overstretched services are feeding one another in a cycle of crisis, meaning the picture continues to worsen. Hestia’s 2025 London Mental Health Index, for example, found that the proportion of adults reporting having experienced three or more symptoms of poor mental health in the past year had risen by 9 per cent on 2024 levels

The challenge is not only to treat mental illness, but to build the connections between services that help people before, during and after crisis — a task that demands collaboration across sectors as well as reform within the NHS.

Read full article on newstatesman.com