Worries about mental health is rising at an extreme level, many doctors are already worried about the current number which is rising each day but in York is Mental Health taken seriously?
Sadly there is no simple answer to this, as Doctor Michelle Rose of ‘Mind’ 
explained to me “When it comes to York there is an adequate amount of facilities, but I do believe for the current levels of people suffering with Mental Health there should be more”. In 2015 York was the only major city in the UK to not have a large NHS psychiatric hospital due to the unexpected closure of Bootham Park Hospital. It was stated this was due to some inspectors worries that patients were at risk due to the large drops from the building.
But that leaves York void of a large mental health facility. Which obviously means York’s menta
l health is not taken seriously, right? Wrong. As Doctor Rose told me, there is a division of ‘Mind’ (York Mind https://www.yorkmind.org.uk/) who are still working in York and supplying residents with many mental health services. Sadly due to their small number I was unable to interview any workers of York ‘Mind’ but I was able to interview a couple of patients as long as I did not disclose their full names. They spoke positively of York ‘Mind’ but also expressed some concern. David stated “I feel like there’s a lot of care put in here (York ‘Mind’) but, it’s just not enough”, he went on to explain, “There’s only a few staff members on at any time and they’re almost always busy, meaning we sometimes have to find somewhere else which isn’t as good”.
I decided to look into these other facilities and found a place called ‘The Retreat’, a very good looking place with one glaring issue. They don’t offer that many services. I was unable to speak to anyone for the same reason as York ‘Mind’ so I checked their website which only showed me 4 services. Complex Dementia Care, Eating Disorders, DID and Personality Disorders. All sounds good until you read that they only offer the majority of these services to Women. Only Dementia Care is also offered to Men
This was a large shock to me as around 3/4 of all suicides due to mental health issues are committed by men, according to multiple reports including the NHS. Currently the known statistics are that 19% of Women in the UK suffer from Mental Health Issues and that 12% of Men suffer from mental Health issues. I decided to call up Doctor Rose again to ask her explanation of how the two
statistics correlate since it should mean Women commit more suicides them men. She explained “the reason why there are less men diagnosed with Mental Health Issues is because, on average, men don’t show emotions due to this men don’t cry stigma which causes these uneven Gender statistics”.
Not everything is bad news though as in 2019 York will open a brand new Mental Health facility on Haxby Road which will have NHS backing so hopefully York ‘Mind’ will have less stress. The facility will also cater to both Men and Women so any gender bias will be dealt with. Hopefully meaning York’s position on mental health will no longer be difficult to answer.