As we celebrate World Mental Health Day, we are reminded of the strong links between mental ill health and poverty, both locally and even internationally.

As a governor of our mental health foundation trust and working with local organisations, I have fought to raise awareness of the current issues around mental health and poverty, including impact of welfare reforms on mental health, by seeking to involve service users in dialogue, reduce stigma, promote more joined-up work across all sectors and finally to include hard to reach groups.

We have heard shocking stories from mental health service users about the lack of adequate mental health support and the need to improve mental health waiting times for mental health treatment, especially for those marginalised and hard-to-reach groups such as BME groups. Improving mental health treatment is key to a successful recovery process as the new mental health acute pathway puts emphasis on mental health in the community.

These problems will continue with the onset of more austerity. But poor mental health can often have more distant and more violent origins. Like many others I came here from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Dubbed ‘Africa’s first world war’, the conflict there claimed more than 12 million lives with unimaginable brutality, even genocide, horror, summary executions and rape as a weapon of terror. As a consequence, more than five million fled, leaving them without food, shelter, sanitation, medical supplier and security. As a result most of them have experienced mental ill health.

Because of this, organisations such as Freedom from Torture (formerly Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture in the UK) should be commended for providing practical assistance such as psychological and psychotherapeutic support to mental health refugees and asylum-seekers in the United Kingdom. More needs to be done to provide more funding to such organisations, such as providing mental health support to refugees and asylum-seekers in refugee. But the ongoing nature of new and more violent conflicts in the world will only exacerbate this situation.

Tackling poor mental health whatever its origins is impossible without strong leadership. The government strategy, No Health Without Mental Health, was encouraging in putting mental health services on parity with physical health services. The strategy outlined the importance of the ‘life course’ approach with lifelong wellbeing from birth. Nick Clegg’s reiteration of much of this this week was welcome but it remains to be seen whether we will achieve true parity.

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Jean-Roger Kaseki is a councillor in the London borough of Islington. He tweets @JeanKaseki

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Photo: Jarkko