The wellbeing industry: is it doing us any good?

Recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival 2024 on Saturday 19 October at Church House, Westminster.

ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION

Wellbeing is big business and the ‘wellness’ industry is booming. Since the inaugural Global Wellness Day in 2012, annual worldwide spending on wellness has ballooned to $5.6tn dollars, considerably more than the GDP of Germany, the world’s third-largest economy. In the US, the number of professional therapists is growing faster than any other occupation. In the UK, as wellness programmes and wellbeing champions become prominent in the workplace, 290,000 therapists are now employed, double that of a decade ago.

Nowhere is the wellness industry thriving more than amongst the young. In line with government-sponsored initiatives like the University Mental Health Charter Programme, and supported by enterprises such as Student Minds, expansive counselling and welfare services cater to staff and students, who are urged to ‘develop insight, understanding and skills’ to manage and maintain wellbeing. Another burgeoning growth area is in new mental-health apps, popular tools to cultivate and tend your wellbeing.

The booming wellness industry coincides with an apparent nationwide deterioration of mental health, including rapidly rising levels of depression, anxiety and behavioural disorders.  Some put this down to ‘intensification’ of work, tighter deadlines, managers ill-equipped to look after employees or anxieties over the rising cost of living.  But others say the problems are more social and cultural, for example reflecting post-pandemic blues or toxic workplace culture, where employees are stressed from microaggressions, racism or homophobia.

With record absenteeism and debilitating impacts in terms of people’s ability to manage their lives, one question is whether the wellness industry is helping people. With growing mental-health problems seemingly outpacing the increased resources devoted to wellness, is there a need for more investment in professionals and an expanded remit, such as employers advising on life beyond work, from financial budgeting to exercise and eating regimes? But others warn society risks relying on professional ‘help’ that will undermine resilience to deal with the challenges of everyday life for ourselves.

The former secretary of state for work and pensions, Mel Stride, argues that we have ‘gone too far’ in medicalising the ‘normal anxieties of life’ and some worry the growth of wellness has a debilitating effect on wider society. Post-pandemic worklessness is rife as monthly numbers signing on long-term sick have doubled – with mental health the biggest single complaint. In universities, increasingly students cite wellbeing problems as mitigating or extenuating circumstances ahead of exams.

What is driving the growth of the wellness industry? Is it a necessary service helping those in need or unnecessarily encouraging us to declare we are ill? How can we strike the right balance between treating those who need help and avoiding causing problems for individuals and society? And how should we respond to the cultural ascension of the wellness industry and its politically imposed ideals?

SPEAKERS
Rachel Bosenterfer
higher-education professional; women's rights activist

Amy Gallagher
psychiatric nurse and psychotherapist

Roy Lilley
health-policy analyst; writer; broadcaster and commentator; co-author, Wellness: why can’t we stop people getting sick in the first place?

Para Mullan
former operations director, EY-Seren; fellow, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

CHAIR
Rosamund Cuckston
senior HR professional; co-organiser, Birmingham Salon