I know I am not alone in simply thinking "What? No!" to the news that Robin Williams has killed himself this morning. A comedy great, a man whose biggest films are loved by those who grew up with him, and those that came later too.
What I hope can be taken from Williams' passing is a strengthened resolve to tackle mental health issues. Every year 1 in 4 people in the UK suffer from a mental health problem. Suicide is the main cause of death in men under the age of 35, although women are more likely to be treated for a mental health issue than men. Perhaps because our society still has no room for supposed "weak" men. And what is weaker than your mind falling apart?
Well that's wrong, and we need to change the perception of people with mental health issues. I have a history of depression in my family: in fact I think everyone on my mother's side of the family up to my grandparents has had depression. My sister and I have both attempted suicide by overdose. And yet mental health is still not treated in an equal way to physical health in the NHS, despite the Coalition Government's promise to do so; NHS England this year announced cuts in funding to mental health services. Mental health problems continue as a silent issue, one that affects so many of us: people we love, people we work with, or even ourselves.
Robin Williams' isn't the first acting great we've lost this year: Philip Seymour Hoffman died from a drugs overdose earlier this year. Addiction can be considered a type of mental health problem, and it has been in the news lately with Nick Clegg promising to abolish prison sentences for people caught for possession of drugs for personal use, because they are "people who need treatment". The Lib Dem's have a point, of course, that personal drug use should be approached as a "health" issue and not one of law & order. But if there aren't the resources available to help people get off the drugs that control (and are possibly ruining) their lives, then what difference does it make?
I am going to watch Hook, and remember Robin Williams' for the comic genius and Oscar-winning actor that he was. Not the broken and desperate man the depression inevitably made him at the end. And there is no substitute for Robin Williams.
Robin Williams: Career in Pictures (Only Oscar)
