So no extra funding for MH conditions or eating disorders just weight loss jabs!

[Gr3ySkies]

It’s nuts!

So many people struggling with quite severe MH conditions on massive waiting lists getting nothing.

People dying of EDS. Because there are no inpatient beds and huge waits for treatment but apparantly we can fund weight loss jabs to anybody who wants them. 🤔

Even though we know very little about the long term impact.

apparantly we can fund weight loss jabs to anybody who wants them. 🤔

Pardon?

All that has been proposed is a very small scale trial, the outcome of which is not guaranteed success, so there are fair few steps yet before we get anywhere remotely close to a situation whereby weightloss drugs are dished out to "anybody who wants them".

I’m self funding my weight loss injection, where can I get it for free?!

In the long term the weight loss injections will save the NHS money as less people will be presenting with obesity related issues.

I highly doubt that they will be for "anybody who wants them". There would be limits on who would be acceptable to receive something like this, not people who are just a couple of stone overweight. I would not want to be in the position to have to receive them personally. There will always be other things that money could be spent on, people will never always agree.

The trial will only include 3000 patients. Hardly "everyone who wants them". Also, it's not a binary choice. The government can offer both and, in fact, they did have plans for MH in their manifesto. A cursory Google search would have told you that. But why let the facts get in a way of a good story...

So how about treating the MH causes of obesity instead of looking at issuing expensive sticking plaster treatment for obesity itself.

How about trials for those struggling with EDs. Sufferers are just being given palliative care and dying.

Er no. They are not just handing out free weight loss jabs FFS.

There is good evidence that they are having a positive effect on other health issues not just weight loss. Of course the NHS should be looking into them further.

But as a long term policy if it goes ahead it will be just a sticking plaster and ludicrous.

And expensive

But why not fund the MH causes of obesity. And going forward why should those with obesity just get free jabs whilst those struggling with EDs are just left on waiting lists?

Do you think those with obesity don’t have eating disorders?

I’m obese and have an ED. Do you think only skinny people have EDs? Would be worth educating yourself?

Not clear what the connection is between funding weight loss injections and availability of mental health resources. Inpatient beds are scarce. Demand outstrips supply. We also have huge workforce challenges with insufficient qualified staff, recruitment and retention problems. The tiny investment into weight loss jabs is not material or relevant.

I can only assume you're not being sincere or have not given this proper critical analysis.

Good point.

MH services needs a huge cash injection, in fact it needs a total overhaul from the ground up. And I don't think the Gov't is going to improve the woeful MH provision in this country.

But I can see the cost vs benefit puzzle that giving these injections to the overweight will bring, but I have concerns about the long term impact. How long will the NHS pay for the injections because as I understand it, once you're on them it's a lifelong commitment as you need a regular maintenance dose. This trial needs to come with education on sensible eating and an exercise regime. Having seen my BIL get weight loss surgery on the NHS, then end up bigger than ever as he never changed his lifestyle I can see this is not as simple as a few months of jabs and job done.

It's not a sticking plaster

Have you used the jabs?

I've had a terrible relationship with food my whole life
Yoyod from 11st to 19st.

This jab is thw first thing that's ever helped me mentally. It's taken all the pressure and stress around food away.

It's allowing me to LEARN how to eat normally and listen to my body and these months and months of getting into a routine of good food practices without the 'food compulsion' is going to help me succeed when I come off them.

I feel like it's a miracle TBH and nothing else has ever come close intwrms of actual wright loss and helping my brain understand what food should be, nourishment not reward.

Some do and the root cause needs to be treated as opposed to just sticking a plaster on it.

Obesity causes many things, heart attack, stroke, cancer. My helping people lose weight you free up other nhs resources and beds. As less people will need them, we were at crisis point.

the nhs is only giving it to people with a bmi over 40 and now doing a trial on the unemployed who struggle to get roles due to their weight.

thry aren’t just handing them out like candy, and tackling the obesity crisis is really important. Critical in fact.

yes all areas need funding, including mental health, but the scale of those will be way smaller than the scale of people obese, on expensive medication for co morbidities like blood pressure or diabetes, and using many hospital beds. If you can tackle the obesity crisis it frees up resources for everything else.

this is a positive op.

Where are you getting your information from? Are you claiming that every obese person is overweight because they have a mental health problem?

It is relevant if a huge amount of money is spent on it at a cost to MH and ED support.

I speak as the parent of a Yp with anorexia, there are next to no inpatient beds and massive lists for treatment. Kids are moving from CAMHs to adult with EDs entrenched. Palliative care is now being used as treatment. MH treatment and funding should come first.

Jabs come with a cost to the environment and are a huge potential bill for the NHS down the line if they are proved to have risks.

I doubt that MH conditions are the major underlying driver of obesity. It's usually a combination of eating too much of the wrong thing and moving too little underpinned by economic factors/poverty. I understand your anger re the underfunding of EDs on the NHS but your anger is misplaced.

What about them?

Funding this trial doesn't prevent any of those other things happening. The money for this isn't being diverted away from something else. There is no reason why the government couldn't also fund those things if there was sufficient will.

It will cost a fortune if it becomes a line of treatment. Other areas of the NHS including MH and ED treatment are on their knees. It’s ridiculous.

At the end of the day it's a trial to determine if a wider rollout would be beneficial.

If the trial doesn't prove there will be a reduction in unemployment and NHS spending (or an increase in tax revenue by increased business output due to fewer sick days), it won't have a wider roll out. The financial benefit will have to outweigh the cost of the jabs and price of administering the policy.

It won't be rolled out if there are not cost savings, so the argument of "why is money going on fatties instead of xyz" is flawed at the most fundamental level.

The injections are helping me to get treatment for the disordered eating that led to obesity in the first place. For over thirty years I have struggled and battled against it and no therapy or any treatment has come close to helping. Taking Mounjaro has given my brain the peace it desperately needs and without that awful mental war raging in my head, I have been able to take some meaningful steps towards untangling some of the complicated issues that have got me here over the course of my life. It's not a sticking plaster. It's finally something that actually helps and might just possibly work where nothing else ever has.

With respect, OP but if there was an injection that could cure mental health issues and/or certain EDs, and they weren’t being funded but the weight loss ones were, then you’d have a point. I don’t think a comparable treatment exists. Also, frankly, treating the underlying MH issues of those of us who suffer with obesity is complex, time-consuming and expensive with limited success. Obesity costs the country billions. We don’t have the luxury of time to try and therapise everyone out of it. The drugs are relatively inexpensive by comparison.