There is no one size fits all approach to mental health. It wouldn’t be possible to offer a singular form of mental health support to a range of diverse communities and expect effective results. When we consider aspects of identity, such as race, gender, and religion, it appears quite obvious that approaching an individual’s mental health with a regimented idea of support would be problematic. However, across the UK, this continues to happen.

National mental health services within the UK largely offer a European, White, and middle-class model to support and this Eurocentric model of mental health is failing a significant number of communities.

Racialised communities, for example, encounter evidenced inequality when seeking mental health support, to the extent that many individuals are deterred from seeking the support they require. Racism persists as both a cause of mental ill-health and a reason for poor treatment within support services. There are also a number of language and cultural barriers that lead to low-quality treatments and misdiagnoses, failing to take into account individual circumstances and instead reducing patients to tick-boxes.

Socioeconomic factors are another pertinent example within mental health services and it is understood that children and adults living within the lowest 20% income bracket are two to three times more likely to experience mental health issues than individuals living in the highest bracket. Additionally, those who are unemployed or economically inactive are more likely to experience common mental health problems than those who are employed.

A recent study in Bristol found that those who sought mental health support felt confined to ‘labels and symptoms’ These factors can have a significant influence on mental health, affecting how individuals may present problems and respond to care. If they are not appropriately taken into account by healthcare workers, they can leave individuals without the support they need. 

These disparities, however, are generally studied within national healthcare services, which are not the only initiatives that can support mental health. In fact, especially within specific communities, there are a number of ways in which mental health can be improved. Social groups, community centres, and local activities can each benefit individual mental health and offer an environment tailored to the specific needs of various communities, instead of potentially expecting them to conform to the aforementioned Eurocentric model.

The success of these community initiatives, however, does not necessarily remedy the issues facing mental health services across the UK and to break down the issues surrounding a one size fits all model, we must rethink how we approach offering support. Great funding is certainly to be an essential part of a successful resolution as the work associated with mental health issues continues to far outweigh the funding initiatives receive. Education must occur within the industry, enabling healthcare workers to better understand the individual characteristics of the communities they support, with a focus also placed upon diversity within the workplace, helping individuals from racialised communities to feel better connected to the services they seek support from.