The State of Mental Health in Worcestershire

About 2 or 3 years ago I downloaded an interesting “league table” of “areas” with the “highest incidence of mental health problems” and those with the “lowest incidence of mental health problems”. These “areas” refer to council wards in England.  “Mental health problems” are defined as “adults suffering a mood or anxiety disorder” (eg depression). I became aware of this “league table” when it was referred to on the evening news programme BBC Midlands Today. My download “source” was www.csp.org.uk

Now before I endeavour to throw some light on the position of some 20 council wards in Worcestershire in this “Mental Health League Table”, let me caveat my “evidence base” ie the “league table” as follows. This table may be based on data which is :

• Incomplete
• Misinterpreted, or even wrong
• Out-of-date

It is, nevertheless, interesting that Worcestershire, according to the “Mental Health League Table” has the higest incidence of “adults suffering from mood of anxiety disorders” in the West Midlands (the main reason the orginal news item caught my attention). 20 Worcestershire wards are listed amongst those areas with the “highest incidence of mental health problems”, with Wardon (in Worcester)  highest amongst these, and occupying a “position” between 2 inner London areas (Prince’s in Lambeth, and West Hampstead in Camden).

The other Worcestershire wards identified amongst those areas with the “highest incidence of mental healths” problems  in England are (local authority area in brackets) :

• Cathedral (Worcester)
• Charford (Bromsgrove)
• Gorse Hill (Worcester)
• Broadwaters (Wyre Forest)
• Droitwich Central (Wychavon)
• Aboretum (Worcester)
• Evesham North (Wychavon)
• St Johns (Bromsgrove)
• Oldington and Foley Park (Wyre Forest)
• Rainbow Hill (Worcester)
• Offmore and Comberton (Wyre Forest)
• Priory (Malvern Hills)
• Nunnery (Worcester)
• Wribbenhall (Wyre Forest)
• Cookley (Wyre Forest)
• Sidemoor (Bromsgrove)
• Pickersleigh (Malvern Hills)
• Link (Malvern Hills)
• Droitwich West (Wychavon)

The above list shows that those Worcestershire council wards which appear amongst those areas with the “highest incidence of mental health problems” in England, are spread through all local authority designations, with the exception of Redditch.

Could it be that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, and Minister of Parliament for Redditch, provides a beacon of light in an otherwise gloomy county ? I’ll leave such speculation aside. However, having attended the same university college around the same time as Ms Smith (Yes, I thought I’d get that one in somewhere !), I can testify that the she did seem to be a cheerful person.

Having said this, I have to say that “cheerfulness” is not a quality I generally associate with Worcestershire Woman and Man ! By way of illustration, I avoid travelling on certain bus routes for fear of being given detailed “health (mental and physical) histories” not only for fellow passengers, for also for their family members, pet animals, and even, on occasions, distant relations. These “health histories” often (indeed usually) come from people who appear perfectly healthy, and give every indication of living to a ripe old age.

 My uncharitable (no doubt) interpretation is that many, if not most, of the “health historians” have nothing better to think about. Indeed, during the recent flooding, I noted that the subject of personal/family/pet health virtually dropped out of the conversation !

Another problem of Worcestershire Woman and Man is the credulousness with which they generally receive professional opinion and official pronouncements. It is almost certainly the case, for instance, that had I the misfortune to be educated in Worcerstershire today, I should have been diagnosed with some mental deficiency, Attention Deficit Disorder, for instance, statemented for some mild learning difficulty, like dyslexia, and probably left the education system with few or no qualifications.

This predicament would have left me, at best, depressed, and a thereby a contributor to Worcestershire’s high incidence of mental health problems (if the League Table is to be believed !)

Personally, and professionally, I always receive information of the kind to be found in league tables (official and otherwise, unless they refer to ball games) with some skepticism). I apply the same discrimation to government statistics generally, and to government forecasts, in particular. A little Droitwich salt in this context may prove good for both physical and mental health, one’s own and other peoples.

Having said all this, I do think that the apparently “high incidence of mental health problems” in Worcestershire does bear some serious looking into. My guess is that, in addition to those “conditions” I have already mentioned, one contributory factor is the large amount of unsustainable development that has occured across the County for many years; another is the persistence of a rather backward-looking class consciousness, which the local education system continues to re-inforce. Also local health services may not be very good.

Finally, are people in Worcestershire rather more competitive (I mean socially rather than economically) than the national average, with higher levels of status anxiety as a consequence ? Or is this just another indicator of the New Labour “malaise” : please note my reference to the Home Secretary.

On The Internet, Cultural Studies & Psychoanalysis

I have detected an increasing hostility to The Internet and Blogging in particular amongst the conventional media recently : do I also detect some deeper resentment in this ? Let’s face it the conventional media has always had its shortcomings, and if some of its professionals feel that sections of The Internet are low (brow)  on content, let me remind them that some people, myself included, also felt the same about BBC television during much of Greg Dyke’s tenure as Director General. Now, having got that out of my system I want to reflect upon the importance of Internet (user-generated) content with reference to Sigmund Freud’s account of the “Wolfman”.

I was first introduced to this account in Ritchie Robertson’s excellent introduction to Freud’s “The Interpretation of Dreams” (Oxford World Classics edition). Robertson comments :

“One of Freud’s later patients, the young Russian who has gone down in psychoanalytic history as the Wolf Man, brought him an extraordinary childhood dream about seven white wolves sitting in a tree outside the dreamer’s bedroom window. By dubious reasoning, Freud traced the dream back to a speculative episode in which the dreamer saw his parents copulating. But its analogues in Russian folklore, and some unusual features of the patient, suggest that it was an initiatory dream; the Russian was westernised enough to have lost the key to its meaning, and Freud’s analysis ensured that the never found it “.

Now, one might presume from the above that Robertson is hostile to Freud, but not at all. His introduction to “The interpretation of Dreams” recognises the profound cultural importance of Freud’s work, even if some of this was misguided.

The Penguin Freud Reader contains actual extracts of Freud’s work with the Wolf Man in ” From the History of an Infantile Neurosis (The “Wolfman”)”. I have to confess that I found Freud’s account rather difficult to read, although containing important insights which go beyond Ritchie Robertson’s shorthand analysis. Freud’s concluding comments on the case of the “Wolfman” are as follows :

“My account makes it easy to guess that my patient was a Russian. I discharged him, believing him to be cured, a few weeks before the unexpected outbreak of the Great War and only saw him again after the vissisitudes of the war had given the Central Powers access to Southern Russia. He then came back to Vienna and told me that immediately after leaving treatment he had found himself endeavouring to break free from the influence of his physician. A few months of work enabled us to to deal with an element of the tranference that had not yet been mastered, and since then the patient, deprived by the was of his home, his fortune, and all his family relations, had felt normal and conducted himself impeccably. Perhaps the very misery he felt had contributed to the stability of his recovery by providing some satisfaction for his sense of guilt”.

Incidentally, I have to say that the above account confirms one of my own prejudices about psychoanalysis/psychotherapy : ie real problems can often displace psychological ones, and may, indeed, be the only “cure” for some people. However, this is not the end of the Wolf Man’s story, as Freud might have us believe.

I discovered that Freud’s Wolf Man has his own entry in The Internet user-generated Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Pankejeff) which gives further dimension and depth to his story. I mention this to illustrate what I regard to be the importance of The Internet as unparalleled resource for cultural study.

But why am I so interested in the story of the Wolf Man ? I must say that as someone interested in so-called “green spirituality”, including “shamanism” insofar as this has “translated” itself into western culture, Ritchie Robertson’s suggestion that Sergei Pankejeff’s dream should have “analogues n Russian folklore” with “initiatory” interpretations first caught my interest in the story. In fact, Pankejeff drew rather a good picture of the wolves in the walnut tree. Curiously, there are five not seven creatures in the drawing. However, when I read Freud’s account of the Wolfman’s analysis, I was struck by the extreme dysfunctionality of his family, with both father and sister commiting suicide through overdose and poison respectively. The depressive illness of his father, in particular, seemed to be rooted in wider social events, associated with the impending Russian Revolution. Given such turmoil within and around his adolescent family, it is surprising therefore that Pankejeff lived well into his ninetieth year.

This brings me back to his rather numinous (ie spiritually powerful) drawing of the wolves in the tree (which reminds me of some Rudyard Kipling art works). Pankejeff’s picture has a talismanic quality ( it is in its own way an iconic image), and whilst he may have been unaware (not apparently being a Jungian) of its archetypal or initiatory  significance, the drawing did, nevertheless, bring power into his own life and imbued his story with a numinosity which many people have clearly found irresistable : all the more so with the power of The Internet !

So Don’t be Dumbed-Down : the Consequences may be Serious (as the former Director General of the BBC, Greg Dyke, ultimately found when he sought to broadcast the Truth)

On the Meanings of Rural England

The other day, whilst browsing the shelves of the History Centre and Library in Worcester, I came across a rebound (in rather fine purple !) volume of Rider Haggard’s “Rural England”. This 2 volume work, published at the beginning of the 20th century, provides a survey of the English counties. Perusing the chapter on Worcestershire, I noted the attention given by Rider Haggard to the importance of the small-holder. Now Rider Haggard, a Conservative (but not necessarily with a small c) believed in land reform, a subject to which modern policy-makers of all political parties might fruitfully give some attention (also something to do for the great many “think-tanks” with which the English nation is currently afflicted !). Needless to say, a more vivid account of Rural England emerges from Rider Haggard than that offered by the various government-sponsored agencies currently pre-occupied with this subject, including the Commission for Rural Communities  www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk . Whilst the website of the Commission is positively awash (a bit like the countryside during the recent floods) with evidence-based research – indeed I am currently awaiting an “official definition” of what constitutes “rural england” – no real picture of “Rural England” emerges. Instead I am reminded of the future predicted by the French (who, incidentally, still possess “rural communities”) thinker Foucault, wherein people would be increasingly engaged (ie employed) in studying and, more importantly, “classifying” (as one would another species) other people. Sound  familiar ! I wonder what Rider Haggard would have made of this state of affairs. As the writer of “She” (oringinally entitled “She who must be obeyed”), a book about the immortal African priestess Ayesha , I am sure that he would have had something interesting to say. For aside from being a landowner and, by the time he wrote “Rural England” country squire, Rider Haggard was a man of both the world and the imagination : a rare creature indeed today, perhaps particularly in rural England, and almost certainly totally extinct amongst most “evidence-based communities” pre-occupied with their “official definitions” of things.

The Delights of the Droitwich Salt Water Lido

Despite it being a traditional English summer day – slightly chilly and changeable – I took a bracing swim in the Droitwich Salt Water Lido this morning. What a wonderful place, and fine example of a local authority actually (well, eventually) heeding sense from the community (after much campaigning) and not re-developing it for yet more housing.

Green Belt & “Never Mind the Bollocks” !

Yesterday, I received several email attachments from a regional agency in the West Midlands (who shall remain nameless in case I embarrass them !). One of these “de-constructed” to a pink and white image which contained the words “Never Mind the Bollocks” (Yes, this actually happened) and I duly notified said agency. Given my recent blogs on Ed “Load of” Balls (a Cabinet Minister and husband of Housing – also Cabinet – Minister, Yvette Cooper), I thought “How Strange !”. However, this syncronicity made perfect sense later in the day when I noticed that the Birmingham Post newspaper carried a front page article on green belt. Good for them ! Unfortunately, the article also contained some not greatly enlightening exchanges from Labour and Conservative politicians on the subject of housing-building. This Government, notably in the form of Ms Cooper, have created what can only be described as hysteria around the subject of housing, and, as yet, (with the possible exception of Boris Johnson) the Tories have not come up with much sense either. So as a supporter of “green belt”, which has been a great planning success (this is not to say that it is policy perfection), I was indeed left thinking and “Never Mind the Bollocks” !

A Cyclists Take on More Dark Brown Water in Worcester

This morning as I cycled through the Diglis area of Worcester (scene of major redevelopments), I was struck by the large amount of dark brown water about (some of which also had a rather umpleasant smell). Despite recent flooding, it had not rained for about about three weeks until yesterday. Therefore to encouter what can only be described as a “surge” of dark brown water along the side of Diglis Road came as a surprise. I also felt particularly sorry for one local business (a public house) which has  not only had too endure the problem of local flooding but also the considerable nuisance caused by ongoing construction projects nearby (which have been ongoing on for the last 5 years or so and may continue for rather longer, I suspect). These projects have undoubtedly contributed to the drainage problems, as the contractors have not proved very considerate in cleaning up their mess. Needless to say, as a cyclist I also feel the impact of this situation and I am rarely found wearing good clothes these days : I certainly could not pass myself off as a female New Labourite, even if I wanted to (which I certainly don’t). However, this morning I harboured a fantasy of appearing wet and bedraggled in the office of some local bureaucrat and giving said individual a piece of mind, whilst shaking myself like a large wet and dirty dog. Yes, I can be a real bitch, if I choose to be !

An Interesting Conversation about Politics

Whilst I was railing against New Labour and Education (Education, Education, Education – Yawn, Yawn, Yawn !)  as recorded in my blog below – a man started what turned out to be a rather interesting conversation. I was well put on the spot regarding my political views, which the man (a lifelong Labour supporter with strong family connections to the trade unions) probed with considerable energy (causing some people to complain about the noise). He was surprised to hear someone venting her opinions so openly : which I put down to the dumbing-down of political discourse (outside blogging that is) under New Labour. The fact is that having a political opinion (with a large or a small p) is increasingly discouraged in this country : having an opinion is something you should conceal or disguise anyway, in case other people (bureaucrats, for instance, and most of the “professions”) don’t like it. Most people are only subliminally or sub-consciously aware of this opinion “suppresion/repression”, or oppression, but know it exists. Eventually, my questioner asked me if I thought the earth was likely to destroyed by a meteor. I am starting to explore this and other possible major cosmic and earthly happenings  in my various blogs, but I couldn’t offer him a definitive answer, only speculating that if Ed Balls was struck by a meteor it would not only prove beyond doubt that a god exists, but on occasions has a good aim.

Why I don’t want a Load of Balls in the Library !

 I arrived in Worcester City Library today to find some awful (awful !) women from the local education service conducting a survey (Yes, one of those !). No doubt the awful (awful !) Ed Balls (I think he’s the Secretary of State for Education etc now) was in some way responsible for this, so I complained about him to the awful women who turned away in that disrespectful New Labour way which bureaucrats and others of their sort have increasingly mastered in recent years. Yes, there is a “respect” dimension to this !

Frankly, I’m fed up to the teeth with the subject of education, bored stiff, in fact…..and I sympathise with all those young people out there who probably feel the same. Having said this I quite enjoyed my own school days, and feel that I received an education which was entirely adequate (sometimes excellent) at my local comprehensive. One reason for this, was that no great fuss was made about eduction in those distant times, and teachers were allowed to get on with their jobs without the tyranny of bureacracy that exists today.

Incidentally, my Room 101 experience would involve attending a school run by Ed Balls and his Mrs, the Housing Minister, Yvette Cooper. 

Others on Balls 

‘There you have it! The final proof. Labour’s brand new, shining, modernists’ economic dream. But it’s not Brown’s – it’s Balls.’
Michael Heseltine after Gordon Brown used the term neoclassical endogenous growth theory in a 1994 speech

‘He reminds me of Brains from Thunderbirds’
Jackie Ashley in the Guardian, 2002

‘Since 1994, he’s been Brown’s economic theoretician, factotum and sounding board … I’ve always thought that – in his less conspicuous way – he was more powerful than Alastair Campbell.’
Robert Peston in the Sunday Telegraph, June 2004

‘Ed Balls is parading himself as the saviour of my home town, Normanton. What Ed knows about life as it is lived in Talbot Street is what my trousers know about snipe shooting.’
Paul Routledge in the Daily Mirror, May 2005

Common Sense & The Problem of the New Environmentalists

A while ago, before the second major flooding of the River Severn this Summer, the journalist Camilla Cavendish edited an episode of the BBC Radio 4 “Analysis” series. I forget the exact theme, but aside from the usual “new environmentalist” suspects (former Environment Secretary David Miliband amongst these), was a woman entirely new to me, someone called, I think, “Solitaire Townsend” (Wow, what a name, I thought at the time !). Now Ms Townsend, Ms Cavendish informed her radio audience, heads up a communications consultancy called ? “Futerra”, which runs campaigns around environmental issues for business and government. One of “Solitaire’s” (I shall call her, because it sounds better) main messages was that the environment and “going green” need to become much more of a status enhancement thing (accessory perhaps !), if aspirational types (presumably like New Labour politicians) are to take the issue seriously. There may be some merit in this position. However, the transition to environmental sustainability (we’re a very long way away from this yet), I would suggest, ultimately needs to appeal to people’s common sense, and if the people presently in power have less common sense than aspiration, then we need to put some new ones in their place. Unfortunately, I’m not yet sure that David Cameron’s Conservatives (among whose ranks is, I suspect, Camilla Cavendish), or, for that matter, the Liberal Democrats, possess the necessary common sense capacity to do the job either, although it is possible that some future coalition government just might do. Otherwise, I’m afraid, we might all, aspirational or not, have sold ourselves down the river.

Pornography & Public Libraries….Don’t Mix !

I consider myself to be a cultural (if not social) liberal, but when I find guys (haven’t found any girls) browsing Internet pornography on publicly-funded computers, it fair to say that this pisses me off. I haven’t a basic problem with pornography (provided it isn’t exploitative or violent), but there’s a time and place for it, and this is isn’t in public places like libraries. The fact is that there’s a creep sitting right next to me as I’m writing this blog, to whom I’ve already complained. However, it seems that the pervy temptation of porn is just too strong for many men, and Worcestershire County Council needs to introduce more targetted censorship into their computer systems (which have a tendency to preclude access to entirely innocuous websites).