Quick fixes

A leading professor has criticised the Government and medical staff for failing to address the root causes of health problems in the North East.David Hunter, Professor of Health Policy and Management at Durham University, said too much money was spent on Government initiatives, such as the national Change4Life campaign, which act as a “band aid” for health problems and fail to provide any long-term solutions.

He said closing the income gap between the social classes was key to addressing and improving health inequalities in the UK and, in particular, the North East.

“The big problem in health inequalities is the income gap between social groups and health problems are arising from this,” he explained.“A lot of issues such as alcohol abuse, mental health problems and teenage pregnancies are prevalent within low-income families and the Government needs to address this by reassessing the tax and benefit system, and increasing the amount of money given to poorer families...Campaigns such as Change4Life do have some benefit, but the lasting effect is short-lived and are a quick fix to the health problems we are seeing – they are not life-changing.”

While acknowledging the good doctor for his recognition that the bad health of workers is directly related to their poverty , we cannot share with him his optimism that simply tinkering with tax credits will solve the problem . Much the same as the Marmot report on health inequalities in typically capitalist money concern way, we get Professor Hunter asserting that instead of public health interventions it would be cheaper, it seems to pay us better.

Erich Fromm explained mental illness in terms of the failure of the individual to relate properly with other individuals. For him, most mental health problems were social.Humans are social animals, and we need each other not only practically but also psychologically — we need to feel part of a group, of a community. From which it follows that any society which does not satisfy this psychological need, or which actively works to prevent it being satisfied, is incompatible with human nature.Capitalism, because it encourages competition between individuals, pitting them against each other in a rat race for power, privilege and prestige, is a society that is incompatible with human nature. It is an “insane society”, a “sick society”. Only a society based on co-operation and community is a sane society as one which properly meets the psychological needs of human beings for a sense of belonging; not just a sense of belonging but a state of actually belonging to a real community.

Professor Hunter has to seek deeper for fundamental life-changing solutions , rather than offer shallow quick fixes himself .