We keep being told that poor mental health is the largest cause of disability in the UK. The Department of Health wants us to know that they take this seriously and that they want public services to reflect the importance of mental health in their planning; making it as important as physical health.

I am happy that mental health is being prioritised. I am less thrilled about the realities of being one of the frontline clinicians currently trying to deliver mental health services in the UK. Is it because I am burnt out or one of those people who like to complain about working thanklessly for “the man”? No, I love my job (I’m an experienced clinical psychologist), I enjoy a challenge, and am committed to trying to have a positive impact on young people’s wellbeing and making the unbearable a little more tolerable.

What bothers me is that these ideals don’t match up with the monetary realities. Haven’t we been in the depths of a financial crisis for the past few years? They also don’t seem to match up with the ideas that managers in our NHS trusts have. They want us to “fix” lots of people as quickly and as cheaply as we can. The reality is that lasting change can take months, sometimes years, to achieve and you need specialist, experienced staff to do this. There isn’t enough cash to pay for this. The coalition said in November 2013 that it wanted the government and NHS England to commit to investing sufficient resources to begin to deliver their vision. Meanwhile, the mental health trust that I work in has recently had to make £1.5m pounds worth of cuts in the adult mental health directorate alone. About 80 clinical staff have gone; these are the people who work directly with those with mental health problems.

The mental health teams cover a local population of 300,000 where I work – potentially a lot of people facing emotional issues. Following recent cuts there is only a handful of trained cognitive-behaviour therapists and even less psychologists spread incredibly thinly across these teams; in at least one of these teams you can’t get to see a therapist or psychologist at all – they don’t have the money to employ one. In another team you will wait many months to be seen. There are risks of not having access to therapy for the service users, those close to them and to the wider community. Bad relationships, worsening mental health and increased dependency are some of the best outcomes. Significant deliberate self harm, serious criminality and suicide are the worst case scenarios.

If you are a young person self-harming, hearing voices who is pretty traumatised by what life has thrown at you, and you want to have some therapy to help you through it, well, the good news is that you might have a chance of seeing me. But I am only one part-time person; I manage to see or influence the treatment of maybe 30-40% of my team’s caseload. Also, it is hard for me to find a safe and appropriate room to see you in that’s near to your home. We don’t have the space because we have had to sell buildings to make cost savings. On more than one occasion managers have joked that I could set up a clinic in my car or buy a van to drive around to see people in. Another manager has been very open about not having any faith in psychological therapy: “I wouldn’t have therapy, what good can talking do? It doesn’t work.” This is not an attitude that inspires confidence or encourages innovation.

Please know that there are many committed clinicians working hard to try to safeguard our clients and the public. But we simply can’t do a good enough job on a shoestring.

This year’s Guardian and Observer Christmas charity appeal theme is mental illness. Find out more about the charities being supported.

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