Gavin Francis and Muir Gray Henry Marsh

GP Dr Gavin Francis and public health expert Sir Muir Gray discuss mental health, waste in the NHS, whether we are prescribing too much medication for mental health, and what future treatment options might be.

Francis is a GP and urgent care physician with an interest in mental health and author of books including Adventures in Human Being, Shapeshifters and Intensive Care. In his latest, The Unfragile Mind: Making Sense of Mental Health, he explains how up to a fifth of young people in the UK suffer a mental health disorder and one in four adults are prescribed psychiatric medication. He says this represents a huge expansion in mental health labelling and he sets out to explain what is going on. Francis argues that the mind is dynamic and adaptive and is better addressed not with labels but with curiosity, kindness, humility and hope.

Gray was the first chief knowledge officer of the NHS and was founding director of the NHS national screening programmes. He developed NHS Choices, which has more than 40 million visits a month and set up the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine in Oxford. He is a board member of the Oxford Longevity Project, a non-profit organisation set up to promote scientific breakthroughs that guide people on how to live longer and better. His books include Increase your Brainability: And Reduce the Risk and Impact of Dementia and Sod70! The Guide to Living Well. He is an advocate of cutting waste in the NHS by reducing use of resources and treatments that do not add value to patient outcomes.

Discussions are chaired by retired consultant neurosurgeon Dr Henry Marsh, author of the international bestseller Do No Harm and of And Finally: A Neurosurgeon’s Reflections on Life.

This event was originally scheduled to also feature psychiatrist Dr Alastair Santhouse, who has had to withdraw.