Appointing 'Dr. Alex' as ‘Mental Health Ambassador’ Achieves Nothing

 by Louisa McKay

Dr. Alex George is an A&E doctor and also a ‘Love Island’ star who featured on the show in 2018 who, on February 3rd, 2021 was appointed, by Boris Johnson, to be the UK’s mental health ambassador. Images were circulating online of the pair’s meeting in Downing Street where Dr. Alex expressed his passion for changing the stigma around mental health and getting more help available for children in need of it, following the tragic passing of his nineteen year old brother due to mental health. I think that he has done amazing things for raising awareness around these issues by using his platform and academic success, however, I think his appointment as mental health ambassador is arguably counterproductive and simply a publicity stunt from the government for a few reasons.

Boris Johnson passionately engaging in the conversation about mental health with Dr. Alex is somewhat patronising as he, the current figurehead, of an organisation that has neglected the importance of mental health for the last ten years is only paying attention now because he's, firstly, thrown the responsibility of the country’s mental health onto a social media influencer and also so he can make his government look good before he continues on the defund the NHS.

For both boys and girls aged 5-19, the biggest killer is suicide. 1 in 8 children have a diagnosed mental health condition and I would argue that the number of children having experienced or experiencing mental health problems is significantly higher than this, they just haven't been formally diagnosed. And from this figure, less than 1 in 3 children get adequate and professional treatment from the NHS. The Tory government has been defunding the NHS over the 10 years they’ve led, which has massively impacted the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) due to the little funding they (the NHS) now have, its being needed for life threatening medical treatments. This is all happening while the government are paying little attention to the effects their cuts are having on the well being of children - leading to children being put in life threatening situations due to their mental health.

Their actions in other policies are also impacting the mental health of the country, i.e stopping free school meals out of term time, continuing to charge uni students full price for online uni, not giving families enough universal credit to properly cover their bills, poor housing, are all struggles that have been put on families, by the government, which will be negatively affecting their mental health and putting massive stress on parents of low income families, potentially pushing those people over the edge. In a country where the taxpayers fund the NHS, there is no reason why some children and people should not be receiving adequate support for their mental health issues

Since 2016, schools in England have doubled their spending for ‘professional mental health support for pupils’ which is coming out of the already massively underfunded education sector, when the money for mental health support should be within the NHS. Yet, due to the cuts, the NHS can’t afford to help people suffering from their mental health. In  2017, 30 million children were living in poverty, the number of children living in temporary accommodation rose to 51%. Meaning the wellbeing of these children flat lined, while 65% of children reported they ‘often’ or ‘always’ felt stressed, be that as a result of school, hunger, family issues, they are all factors that lead to children developing mental health problems and then not getting the help they require for it.

None of these points are the fault of, or in the control of, Dr. Alex, which is why I think that the new position he’s been granted is more of a gesture to show ‘how much the government cares about mental health’ as opposed to an effort to actually make any change for the country. The idea that awareness still needs to be raised around mental health issues is beginning to lose its meaning while the leaders of our country have shown total disregard for the mental health of the people by defunding the services that have professionals within them who can help fight this epidemic. Dr. Alex has done amazing things for the mental health of people in this country through the platform he has, without the government using him as a shield to hide their lack of interest in this issue. However, even with his following of almost 2 million, the actions of Dr. Alex George will have limited impact without structural change, which comes from the government.