I fear that the Government's 10-year mental health strategy New Horizons, announced today, simply won't go far enough. We all want a better approach to mental health to help people with depression stay in work, improve employers' understanding of the condition and tackle the stigma that still remains with many mental illnesses.

The Government's strategy sounds great at first, focusing on six target areas with plans for prevention, early intervention and improving support for sufferers. But it still smacks of a cosmetic exercise, rather like applying a sticking plaster when surgery is what's really needed.

I am a keen advocate of promoting mental health. One in six people will suffer from depression at some time in their lives, and the World Health Organisation predicts it will be the single biggest health problem in 20 years.

It also doesn't command the same level of sympathy and understanding as, say, cancer. So yes, it's a very real problem that needs to be addressed. But my past experience working in this field makes me think these plans need to be much more thorough to have a chance of working.

Necessary infrastructure

I was once involved in a mental wellness programme at BT, where I worked with managers and the human resources department to devise strategies on how to help people suffering from depression in the workplace.

We had to devise systems that publicised the new programme to staff, to convince and educate managers they had a role to play, to provide a website with information and to run workshops.
The plan was incredibly detailed and took a lot of work to achieve.

In these Government plans, I suspect it may simply result in more bureaucracy, putting together committees, producing papers and recommendations but never quite reaching the coalface - those most at risk. I'm not holding my breath.