To mark World Mental Health Day 2025 (Friday 10th October), our Advocacy Lead Tajinder Lyal talks about how there is an ongoing battle for support facing many people accessing our Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) service.
Accessing mental health support should be a lifeline but for many of the people we advocate for, it feels like a losing battle.
We’ve supported individuals who have desperately tried to get help from Community Mental Health Teams (CMHT), only to be met with delays, confusion, or silence. Others have reached out to crisis services in moments of deep distress, only to be retraumatised by the response.
This has resulted in people withdrawing into themselves, losing hope, or engaging in risky – even life-threatening – behaviour.
Failing those most in need
As IMHAs, we do everything we can. But when someone’s primary concern is housing, social care, or policing, and their mental health is deteriorating in the background, our ability to intervene is limited. The result is people falling through the cracks.
One of the most alarming trends we are seeing is what happens after someone leaves hospital. Our Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) team – working both in hospitals and the community – has seen too many vulnerable individuals discharged without proper care plans or follow-up.
Discharged to be forgotten
These are people who need support, stability and compassion. Instead, they are sent back into the community with little or no safety net. Families are left to pick up the pieces, often without guidance or resources. Tragically, we have heard of failed discharges leading to relapse, criminalisation and even suicide.
It’s not just about mental health. Many of these individuals come from families where conflict and estrangement are common, they might lack access to education or employment and face systemic exclusion. Without support, some turn to crime or self-harm to cope. These are preventable outcomes, but the system continues to ignore the warning signs.
Mental health services are meant to protect and empower. Yet too often, they are doing the opposite. The system is breaking down – ignoring the evidence, the lived experiences and the human cost.
Mental Health Advocacy and beyond
Mental Health Advocacy is about more than just speaking up for people – it’s about demanding better. We owe it to the people we support and communities we serve, to keep pushing for change.
That’s why in addition to the statutory requirements of the IMHA role for individuals, our advocates are always striving to see the big picture and look for ways they can impact broader change, both on the hospital wards and within the community.
I meet with the Mental Health Act leads within our local NHS trusts quarterly and attend the local Mental Health Act steering group to help present the voice of the patients and influence service delivery.
