Discount gym memberships, USA News (London, UK): Young people suffering from mental health problems and conditions like ADHD could be prescribed gym memberships, gardening clubs, and other social activities instead of medication alone as part of government welfare and health reforms. Professor Peter Fonagy, who led a major government review into rising levels of anxiety, depression, ADHD, and autism, told The i Paper that younger people don’t want the diagnosis, but rather support.
Fonagy, a leading professor at University College London (UCL), said young people should be given better access to mental health services, such as counselling, before receiving a formal diagnosis and should be encouraged to get more exercise. Existing NHS schemes allowing individuals to be referred to a gym by their GP typically provide discounted rates for memberships or classes over a fixed period.
Literally hundreds of studies show what benefit exercise brings to mental health, Fonagy noted, adding that it is probably more effective than most antidepressants while questioning how many of the seven million people currently on antidepressants actually exercise. Labour’s youth employment tsar, Alan Milburn, is expected to publish his report on the Neet (not in employment, education, or training) crisis later in November and has paid close attention to these recommendations to shape future reforms on youth employment and welfare.
Rising Rates and Prescription Data
Rates of conditions such as anxiety and depression in people aged 16 to 24 have risen by more than a third over a decade, increasing from 18.9 per cent in 2014 to 25.8 per cent in 2024. Young women are almost twice as likely as young men to report common mental health conditions. Fonagy’s review highlighted that antidepressant prescriptions in England increased from 47.3 million in 2011 to 85.6 million in 2022–23. Nearly one million young people aged 16 to 24 are Neets, with out-of-work and disability benefits for this demographic costing £8.1bn, and one in five Neets reporting a mental health condition.
Meanwhile, ADHD prescriptions have reached record levels, showing a 40 per cent rise in adults taking central nervous system stimulants and other drugs over the last year, moving from 190,000 in 2024–25 to 267,000 in 2025–26 according to NHS data. Fonagy’s review suggests placing greater focus on reviewing medication and potential deprescribing—where healthcare professionals help patients reduce or stop taking medication when it is no longer needed or appropriate.
The Role of Social Prescribing
Fonagy and the vice chair of the review, leading psychiatrist Professor Sir Simon Wessely, agreed that young people’s mental distress is real and not a result of overdiagnosis. However, Wessely noted that conditions like anxiety, depression, and ADHD can fluctuate, making alternative support beyond medication beneficial. He cited an example of a lonely student given a diagnosis of depression whose issues would be better addressed by social prescribing, joining societies, painting, volunteering, or playing football.
The review outlines that social prescribing non-medical services such as art classes, theatre groups, gardening clubs, and sports programmes, alongside support for isolation, debt advice, and housing issues, could help tackle the crisis. The review highlighted the Stort Valley and Villages Children and Young People service in Hertfordshire as an example where individuals aged 11 to 25 receive early support following GP referrals, though experts note these measures are not proven to prevent diagnosable mental illness entirely.
