Mental health is currently receiving a lot of media coverage, why is that?

This question was asked to Neil Beckwith, Senior Claims Executive, UK P&I CLUB and this is what he had to say:

"Mental health is receiving a lot of media coverage at the moment, because unfortunately there is a huge amount of stigma surrounding mental health. This is primarily because there is a lack of understanding about it.

There are lots of organisations who are trying to raise awareness about mental health in order to educate people about the many different types of mental health conditions.

In addition to this there are a lot of famous people, including actors, sportsmen, women and even members of the royal family who are stepping forward and talking about their own personal experiences in dealing with mental health.

In 2014 the World Health Organisation released a report and within that it stated that it was estimated that a million people every year commit suicide. Now that is quite staggering. And when you think about it, that works out to something like 2,739 people a day. That in turn works out to approximately just shy of 2 people every minute.

I think that what these statistics prove is how important mental health is and why it is receiving so much media retention."