Economic turmoil and political upheaval have been dominating the news, but there is a problem on the horizon that could have more profound consequences for society than any banking crisis or constitutional rupture. (And it's not climate change.)
The incidence of mental illness in this country is rising; one in four of us can expect to experience some form of psychological problem at some stage in our lives. By 2020, mental health disorders will constitute the developed world's second biggest health problem after coronary heart disease, according to the World Health Organisation.
Other research indicates that even if we are not officially depressed, we are not happy. There's particular concern about young people, and in 2007 Unicef put the UK bottom of a league of 21 economically advanced countries for the wellbeing of children and adolescents.
The cost of this illness to the UK and other nations make a compelling call to action: mental health problems costs the UK up to £77bn a year, according to government figures.
Last year, the Government Office for Science, part of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), published a report setting out the key areas that affect the population's health and wellbeing and also examined what could be done to improve the situation. The research was not confined to health but examined the impact of government policies across departments and sectors.
Prioritise wellbeing
It concluded that, while people's mental health and wellbeing is influenced by several factors - from lack of access to education to negative stereotyping of old age - we can withstand the challenges and even thrive. But for us to do so, mental health and wellbeing needs to be at the heart of policy development, not an addition to it.
What role do museums and galleries have to play? A significant one, according to thinktank Culture Unlimited, which argues in its Museums of the Mind report (2008) that museums could not so much help to treat mental illness as prevent problems developing in the first place.
Its contention is that the medical approach to improving mental wellbeing has failed and that a new strategy is required, which mu-seums can contribute to.
The theory is that museums are already the repositories of things that have traditionally been a source of human happiness: art, of course, but also the stories that help us make sense of the world. The report also claims that museums are unique in being able to offer people a perspective - historical or personal - that helps visitors find "their emotional place in the world".
Active curatorship
Chris Wood, co-author of the report, says: "The system that we have been using to tackle emotional health and wellbeing is not producing the effects that we want it to. We have too many people with a diagnosis and too many people are thrown into that system every year.
"What we're trying to say about the uniqueness of museums is that they can be part of the preventative agenda, about stopping people being thrown into those situations or at least ameliorating them before they reach the treatment stage."
He is not advocating a grand strategy, but does want museums to see mental health as central to their social purpose. The kind of thing Wood has in mind includes curation and co-curation of exhibitions by the public and emotional self-portraits in which people's feelings are captured in different media.
But museums that already work with what the carefully non-judgmental jargon calls "mental health service users" will testify to how tough it can be.
The community partnerships team at Nat-ional Museums Liverpool (NML) works at the preventative end with elderly people on reminiscence projects, which are seen as boosting wellbeing and stimulating memory, but also with children who have been hospitalised due to severe mental health problems, including anorexia and depression.
It is one of their most challenging areas of work, says Claire Duffy, head of community partnerships at NML, and it can be difficult to persuade clinicians of its value - "doing something creative [with patients] isn't necessarily the first thing that medical professionals think of". Yet there is a growing demand from the local primary care trust for their services.
At the Wellcome Collection in London, staff are well-versed in dealing with visitors who find themselves deeply moved by its medically themed exhibitions.
Even so, in preparation for its linked exhibitions on a mental health theme - Madness and Modernity (until 28 June), which examines the influence of psychiatry on artists and architecture in 19th-century Vienna, and the diary drawings of artist Bobby Baker (until 2 August) - staff had further guidance, using elements of Open to All, a training programme for gallery staff produced by the Department of Health with contributions from museums including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate and the Wallace Collection.
Future stakes
"There was some hesitancy among staff about how we should treat people with mental health problems who we anticipated would come in due to the nature of the exhibitions - how should you refer to people with mental health problems, did we need to provide extra resources and extra help?" says Kirsten Warren, visitor services manager at the Wellcome Collection.
"Our staff watched the Open to All DVDs, which helped demystify the issues. The conclusion was that the approaches we already use with our other exhibitions were absolutely right here, too. So we have what we call a 'decompression zone' outside the exhibitions with a comment box, a private comments book and resources from other organisations for people to get help and advice."
The instinct of museums broaching a topic for the first time is to begin with the collection. But Wood argues that, in the case of mental health and wellbeing, this is the wrong starting point. Museums need to embrace this work for its own sake, he says, rather than see it as a way to engage the public with their objects.
Culture Unlimited is positive about its chances of getting funding for some of its plans to work with other institutions, despite the ongoing spending squeeze.
The DIUS report has been followed by Time to Change, a major collaboration between mental health charity Mind, the campaigning body Rethink, and Mental Health Media, with an £18m campaign aimed at lessening the stigma attached to mental illness. Wood hopes museums will be able to capitalise on the attention now being focused on mental health at the highest levels.
He admits he is probably the only person in the sector optimistic about funding right now. "People are distracted at the moment by the global financial crisis. I hope that there is room in the government's programme for this work. They have made it clear that every sector of government should be involved in it because the problems are so serious."
Julie Nightingale is a freelance journalist
The incidence of mental illness in this country is rising; one in four of us can expect to experience some form of psychological problem at some stage in our lives. By 2020, mental health disorders will constitute the developed world's second biggest health problem after coronary heart disease, according to the World Health Organisation.
Other research indicates that even if we are not officially depressed, we are not happy. There's particular concern about young people, and in 2007 Unicef put the UK bottom of a league of 21 economically advanced countries for the wellbeing of children and adolescents.
The cost of this illness to the UK and other nations make a compelling call to action: mental health problems costs the UK up to £77bn a year, according to government figures.
Last year, the Government Office for Science, part of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), published a report setting out the key areas that affect the population's health and wellbeing and also examined what could be done to improve the situation. The research was not confined to health but examined the impact of government policies across departments and sectors.
Prioritise wellbeing
It concluded that, while people's mental health and wellbeing is influenced by several factors - from lack of access to education to negative stereotyping of old age - we can withstand the challenges and even thrive. But for us to do so, mental health and wellbeing needs to be at the heart of policy development, not an addition to it.
What role do museums and galleries have to play? A significant one, according to thinktank Culture Unlimited, which argues in its Museums of the Mind report (2008) that museums could not so much help to treat mental illness as prevent problems developing in the first place.
Its contention is that the medical approach to improving mental wellbeing has failed and that a new strategy is required, which mu-seums can contribute to.
The theory is that museums are already the repositories of things that have traditionally been a source of human happiness: art, of course, but also the stories that help us make sense of the world. The report also claims that museums are unique in being able to offer people a perspective - historical or personal - that helps visitors find "their emotional place in the world".
Active curatorship
Chris Wood, co-author of the report, says: "The system that we have been using to tackle emotional health and wellbeing is not producing the effects that we want it to. We have too many people with a diagnosis and too many people are thrown into that system every year.
"What we're trying to say about the uniqueness of museums is that they can be part of the preventative agenda, about stopping people being thrown into those situations or at least ameliorating them before they reach the treatment stage."
He is not advocating a grand strategy, but does want museums to see mental health as central to their social purpose. The kind of thing Wood has in mind includes curation and co-curation of exhibitions by the public and emotional self-portraits in which people's feelings are captured in different media.
But museums that already work with what the carefully non-judgmental jargon calls "mental health service users" will testify to how tough it can be.
The community partnerships team at Nat-ional Museums Liverpool (NML) works at the preventative end with elderly people on reminiscence projects, which are seen as boosting wellbeing and stimulating memory, but also with children who have been hospitalised due to severe mental health problems, including anorexia and depression.
It is one of their most challenging areas of work, says Claire Duffy, head of community partnerships at NML, and it can be difficult to persuade clinicians of its value - "doing something creative [with patients] isn't necessarily the first thing that medical professionals think of". Yet there is a growing demand from the local primary care trust for their services.
At the Wellcome Collection in London, staff are well-versed in dealing with visitors who find themselves deeply moved by its medically themed exhibitions.
Even so, in preparation for its linked exhibitions on a mental health theme - Madness and Modernity (until 28 June), which examines the influence of psychiatry on artists and architecture in 19th-century Vienna, and the diary drawings of artist Bobby Baker (until 2 August) - staff had further guidance, using elements of Open to All, a training programme for gallery staff produced by the Department of Health with contributions from museums including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate and the Wallace Collection.
Future stakes
"There was some hesitancy among staff about how we should treat people with mental health problems who we anticipated would come in due to the nature of the exhibitions - how should you refer to people with mental health problems, did we need to provide extra resources and extra help?" says Kirsten Warren, visitor services manager at the Wellcome Collection.
"Our staff watched the Open to All DVDs, which helped demystify the issues. The conclusion was that the approaches we already use with our other exhibitions were absolutely right here, too. So we have what we call a 'decompression zone' outside the exhibitions with a comment box, a private comments book and resources from other organisations for people to get help and advice."
The instinct of museums broaching a topic for the first time is to begin with the collection. But Wood argues that, in the case of mental health and wellbeing, this is the wrong starting point. Museums need to embrace this work for its own sake, he says, rather than see it as a way to engage the public with their objects.
Culture Unlimited is positive about its chances of getting funding for some of its plans to work with other institutions, despite the ongoing spending squeeze.
The DIUS report has been followed by Time to Change, a major collaboration between mental health charity Mind, the campaigning body Rethink, and Mental Health Media, with an £18m campaign aimed at lessening the stigma attached to mental illness. Wood hopes museums will be able to capitalise on the attention now being focused on mental health at the highest levels.
He admits he is probably the only person in the sector optimistic about funding right now. "People are distracted at the moment by the global financial crisis. I hope that there is room in the government's programme for this work. They have made it clear that every sector of government should be involved in it because the problems are so serious."
Julie Nightingale is a freelance journalist
The Lightbox: representing the asylum
The Lightbox in Woking has a permanent and a touring exhibition built around a collection originally housed in Brookwood Hospital, a local asylum.
To decide how to display the subject, the Lightbox worked with professionals and people who had experienced mental illness. While the gallery staff were cautious about showing some pretty ghoulish artefacts, such as restraints and metal caps sprouting wires, the service users were enthusiastic.
Director Marilyn Scott says: "We had all these artefacts and weren't sure whether to show them, yet the response from the users focus group was 'this is so interesting'.
"They thought a purely historical standpoint on the collection would be a waste, but users and the professionals saw it as a fantastic opportunity to highlight mental health issues today, such as care in the community or employment problems."
Funded by the Wellcome Trust and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, the resulting exhibitions integrate historical and current mental health issues with specially commissioned film and artwork plus the recollections of former staff and patients of Brookwood.
Sustainability is a perennial problem for project-funded work, but Scott says it becomes even more of an issue when you are involved with people who, as a result of their illness, have been let down by officialdom or rejected by other people.
The Lightbox has launched two new projects. One is an exhibition featuring the Lightbox's modern British art collection, which a group of service users are curating, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The other is life drawing classes, where staff helped the local drop-in centre to apply for a grant from Awards for All to run life drawing classes which the gallery hosts.
The Lightbox in Woking has a permanent and a touring exhibition built around a collection originally housed in Brookwood Hospital, a local asylum.
To decide how to display the subject, the Lightbox worked with professionals and people who had experienced mental illness. While the gallery staff were cautious about showing some pretty ghoulish artefacts, such as restraints and metal caps sprouting wires, the service users were enthusiastic.
Director Marilyn Scott says: "We had all these artefacts and weren't sure whether to show them, yet the response from the users focus group was 'this is so interesting'.
"They thought a purely historical standpoint on the collection would be a waste, but users and the professionals saw it as a fantastic opportunity to highlight mental health issues today, such as care in the community or employment problems."
Funded by the Wellcome Trust and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, the resulting exhibitions integrate historical and current mental health issues with specially commissioned film and artwork plus the recollections of former staff and patients of Brookwood.
Sustainability is a perennial problem for project-funded work, but Scott says it becomes even more of an issue when you are involved with people who, as a result of their illness, have been let down by officialdom or rejected by other people.
The Lightbox has launched two new projects. One is an exhibition featuring the Lightbox's modern British art collection, which a group of service users are curating, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The other is life drawing classes, where staff helped the local drop-in centre to apply for a grant from Awards for All to run life drawing classes which the gallery hosts.
Images of illness
Artist Bobby Baker's diary drawings, on display at the Wellcome Collection until 2 August, detail her periods of mental breakdown since 1997 and time spent in day centres and psychiatric wards. One of the most startling depicts Baker's psychotherapist wielding a knife in her talons ready to plunge into something or someone.
Access to public art spaces can be valuable therapeutically for people who are ill, but displays are also a way of overcoming the prejudice and incomprehension that still surrounds mental illness, Baker says.
"Because mental illness is still so stigmatised, it's difficult to talk about and for people to ask about and for people to admit to," Baker says. "I was judged for being mentally ill, unlike when I had breast cancer, whereas the mental illness I had was potentially much more dangerous than the cancer.
And the fact that I'd recovered from mental illness couldn't be marked. Giving people with mental illness the opportunity to do this sort of work in public spaces offers them an opportunity to communicate things they need to say."
However, it demands real commitment from the institution, she warns. "Just doing one-off things as 'outreach' can be rather demoralising in the long run for the people you're working with," Baker says. "You need to build relationships with people who know about mental health.
Artist Bobby Baker's diary drawings, on display at the Wellcome Collection until 2 August, detail her periods of mental breakdown since 1997 and time spent in day centres and psychiatric wards. One of the most startling depicts Baker's psychotherapist wielding a knife in her talons ready to plunge into something or someone.
Access to public art spaces can be valuable therapeutically for people who are ill, but displays are also a way of overcoming the prejudice and incomprehension that still surrounds mental illness, Baker says.
"Because mental illness is still so stigmatised, it's difficult to talk about and for people to ask about and for people to admit to," Baker says. "I was judged for being mentally ill, unlike when I had breast cancer, whereas the mental illness I had was potentially much more dangerous than the cancer.
And the fact that I'd recovered from mental illness couldn't be marked. Giving people with mental illness the opportunity to do this sort of work in public spaces offers them an opportunity to communicate things they need to say."
However, it demands real commitment from the institution, she warns. "Just doing one-off things as 'outreach' can be rather demoralising in the long run for the people you're working with," Baker says. "You need to build relationships with people who know about mental health.
