(Picture: Ella Byworth/Getty/MylesGoode)

Last week, Prince Harry was massively applauded for speaking out about mental health.

It was a really important moment. A reminder that mental health is a concern for everyone, regardless of status, class, and power.

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But in amongst all the applause, one thing kept bothering me: while it’s great that Prince Harry and other celebs and high-powered people like him are breaking down the silence and stigma around mental illness, it’s not enough.

If you’re in a position of power, speaking out is brilliant – but you need to be fighting for better funding for mental health care, too.




Because here’s the thing: As the brilliant Rebecca Reid pointed out in her response to Prince Harry’s comments, when wealthy people speak about mental health, it’s very different to the experience of a mentally ill person struggling to make ends meet.

Prince Harry, and other well-off people like him, can easily afford to get private therapy should they need to.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

Yes, they still have to overcome the hurdle of asking for help. Yes, they’re still dealing with mental health issues that are just as serious as anyone else’s (because you can have money and still be desperately unhappy, or have debilitating OCD, or be schizophrenic, if you didn’t know).

But once a wealthy person gets to the point that they’re ready for help, they can easily get access to it.

The rest of us, meanwhile, have to rely on the NHS.

And that can mean incredibly long waiting times, difficulty getting prescribed talking therapy, dealing with the occasional doctor that will dismiss your mental illness entirely, therapy that lasts for six sessions instead of for as long as you need, pills prescribed without adequate support, and endless struggles to even get an appointment with your GP in the first place.

The NHS is a brilliant thing – it’s one of the things that makes the UK great.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

But the increasingly limited funds, especially those given to mental health care, make it impossible to provide adequate help for those struggling with mental illness.

New figures indicate that mental health spending will be cut by £4.5m in five English regions this year.

This is despite guarantees from Theresa May and the government as a whole to tackle the ‘stigma’ around mental health, and NHS England’s original call for CCGs to increase their spending on mental health.

While we’re making so, so many positive steps in breaking down the stigma and silence around mental health, promises from higher up to make this happen feel superficial when they’re not making sure the funding is backing them up.

(Picture: Ella Byworth/ Shutterstock)

Loudly proclaiming that it’s #oktosay and great to talk and that we should ask for help when we need it is just the first step – but after that step there’s a massive drop waiting.



Mentally ill people build up the courage to finally, finally admit that they need therapy, CBT, medication, or a different tool to help them with their mental illness. That’s a huge deal and it feels like one.

To then be left alone for months while you wait for therapy is not just painful – it’s dangerous. It gives those of us struggling with mental illness a glimpse of hope, the promise that now that they’ve done what everyone’s been encouraging them to do (speak out, open up, ask for help) everything will get better.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

If we’re lucky, we get an appointment with a genuinely brilliant doctor who says the right things and recommends therapy and medication. It’s great. Everything seems to be going well.

We go through phone calls to assess how serious our health is. We’re asked to rate the likelihood that we’ll try to kill ourselves. A lot of stuff gets brought up, and we mull it over.

And then we’re presented with the sudden shock of silence, of waiting, of nothing.

Because resources are so limited, mental health care providers are forced to make judgments on who needs help most urgently. They’re forced to rank people, to compare, and to decide how long someone can wait for help before they have a breakdown.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

It’s not the care providers’ fault that they have to do this. It’s the lack of funding. But it’s still bloody horrible when you’re the person stuck on waiting lists.


Surely, any number above a zero on the ‘how likely are you to kill yourself’ scale requires urgent help – otherwise we’re willing accepting that there’s at least a ten percent chance someone will top themselves while they’re waiting for the help they’ve asked for.

But ranking and only treating extremes is the only option we have when the NHS’s mental health care is so underfunded. The NHS simply doesn’t have enough money to provide people with the help they need – and literally save lives in the process.

So yes, I appreciate every prince, politician, and celeb speaking out about mental health and breaking down the stigma.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

But frankly, it means f*** all unless they’re also using their positions of power to put their money where their mouth is and ensure funding for the steps that come after talking about it.

Speak out. Open up about mental health. But if you have the power to make it easier for other people beyond advising them to talk to their friends or engage in self-care, failing to do so is unacceptable.

Words are cheap. Therapy is not. Sort it out.

MORE: How long will I have to wait until I get therapy?

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