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Equality and Diversity

June 18th, 2012

The week that was…

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Equality and Diversity

June 18th, 2012

The week that was…

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

This round-up of last week’s equality and diversity news should be a mental health special as we saw MPs discuss mental health in an emotional Commons debate and a report published by LSE described the NHS’s neglect of mental health. Besides the discussion on mental health, we came across an interesting article on ‘policing femininity’ in the Olympics and another one on the case for shortening maternity leave. 

In a rare emotional Commons debate, MPs discussed mental health, many of them speaking of their personal experiences of mental health problems. The Conservative Dr Sarah Wollaston, said she had experienced ‘severe’ post-natal depression and the former Labour minister, Kevan Jones, recounted his experiences with deep depression. The Tory MP Nicky Morgan, who opened the debate, said: “Mental health comes at an economic and social cost to the UK economy of £105bn a year and yet mental health has been a Cinderella service – poorly funded, compared to other conditions, and not spoken about nearly enough either inside this House or outside.”

This view is supported by the report published by the London School of Economics. The report, prepared by a team of economists, psychologists, doctors and NHS managers, describes the ‘scandalous’ scale of the NHS’s neglect of mental illness, suggesting that only a quarter of those who need treatment are getting it. Lord Layard, heading the Mental Health Policy Group, added: “Mental health is so central to the health of individuals and of society that it needs its own cabinet minister…The under-treatment of people suffering from mental illnesses is the most glaring case of health inequality in the NHS.”

Meanwhile, with the Olympics drawing very close, interesting and important diversity issues are coming up. An example is the gender policing of athletes with the sport’s highest medical officials attempting to quantify — and regulate — the hormonal difference between male and female athletes. In a move critics call ‘policing femininity’, recent rule changes by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), state that for a woman to compete, her testosterone must not exceed the male threshold. If it does, she must have surgery or receive hormone therapy. So far, at least a handful of athletes — the figure is confidential — have been prescribed treatment, but their numbers could increase.

Finally, do you think cutting maternity leave would be good news for Britain’s parents? A briefing released by the Fatherhood Institute argues that a more flexible approach to parenting leave is needed, allowing fathers and mothers to share parenting responsibility and balance work and family commitments. The government initially proposed limiting maternity leave to 18 weeks. After 18 weeks it would be parental leave – which can be flexible (taken in blocks of different lengths, and part-time or full-time) and shareable with their partner.

What did you think of today’s ‘The week that was…’? Let us know at Equality.and.Diversity@lse.ac.uk.

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Equality and Diversity

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