I like many others spent last week observing Mental Health Awareness Week. Fresh out of that, I believe we must acknowledge Britain’s shameful poverty crisis as the major driver of mental illness in this country.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, acknowledged in an opinion piece for HuffPost last week that “having decent pay, a stable home and a strong sense of community are essential for our wellbeing and sense of purpose, but far too often they aren’t there when we need them”.
Although these words are accurate, I can tell you that, as a bishop and the founder of anti-poverty and anti-addiction charity Church on The Street, what I see on a daily basis is far more extreme.
Decades of austerity, the after-effects of Covid-19 and lockdowns, and cuts to public funding have culminated in a country where mothers lie awake at night, their bodies racked with fear because they cannot feed their children, families share a single toothbrush and clothes between generations, and parents routinely skip meals so that their children can have something to eat.
As Christians, we worship a God who is deeply concerned about the poor and vulnerable: In Psalm 109, we see the words “For he stands at the right hand of the needy. to save their lives from those who would condemn them”, and in Psalm 113, “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap."
It is good to talk about mental health, but if the structural framework of our country: the systems that are supposed to help our citizens live with a basic level of dignity, are so eroded by government cuts that there can be no meaningful change, we Christians have a duty to act, and, in the words of the Apostle James, ‘be doers of the Word, and not just hearers of it’ (James 1:22-15).
How we vote matters, how we use our money matters, and how we use the gifts that God has given to each of us matters - we must use these resources to lift the burdens of those around us, and protect the vulnerable. The Bible calls us not only to help individuals, but to call out the systems that keep people trapped and address the need for justice and social reform, as we see in Isaiah 58:6-7:“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" Research from the Mental Health Foundation shows that children and adults living in households in the lowest 20% income bracket in Britain are two to three times more likely to develop mental health problems than those in the highest. Before human beings can even give their mental energy to things such as future hopes, goals and dreams, they must have their basic, physiological needs met - food, water, shelter and clothing. And yet 354,000 people in this country are homeless, including 151,000 children, according to the charity Shelter, 13.6% of UK households live with moderate to severe food insecurity as reported by the Food Foundation, and 5.5% of people are living in clothing poverty despite the fact that we throw £140m worth of ‘perfectly good’ clothing away, according to Sol Escobar, the founder of tech for good social enterprise, Give Your Best. It is no surprise that we have a mental health crisis in the UK, and that it is the poorest who are suffering the most.
The level of poverty I see in my hometown of Burnley alone, where Church on The Street operates, is truly shocking. The increase in destitution over the past five years of welfare and public service cuts is such that many people are degraded beyond recognition - it is utterly heartbreaking.
People are so poor that they are eating out of dustbins, just foraging on the street for anything to steal, sell or use. Their mental health is at rock bottom, and hunger and drug addiction from the pressure of poverty is so severe that people cannot maintain the basic level of functioning required to apply for the limited benefits they could receive, or keep on top of essential medical appointments. It’s a level of desperation that I just have never seen before. If the government does not prioritize alleviating poverty and homelessness we cannot call ourselves a humane society.
If we profess the name of Jesus Christ and wish to love God and honour His word, we must take radical action to relieve the suffering of the poor and pray for an end to destitution - a word that should not exist in 21st Century Britain.
A month after his bestselling autobiography, Blown Away: From Drug Dealer to Life Bringer, was published, Pastor Mick Fleming was consecrated Bishop of Church on the Street in Burnley and of The International Christian Church Network. COTS is a Christian community dedicated to helping others, particularly those who find themselves homeless, struggle with addictions, or are on the bread line.
