Six leading mental health organisations recently joined forces to produce 'a plan of action' for the Government in the first 100 days of the new Parliament to help improve the lives of people with mental health problems.
Improving England’s Mental Health: The First 100 Days and Beyond (accessible at http://tinyurl.com/pucqpkk), was produced jointly by Centre for Mental Health, the Mental Health Foundation, Mental Health Network, Mind, Rethink Mental Illness, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and sets out practical actions for the new Government ‘to ensure that mental and physical health are valued equally’. The organisations maintain that during the last Parliament, funding for mental health services was cut, in real terms, by 8.25% – almost £600 m, while just 25% of adults with depression and anxiety get any treatment.
Speaking jointly, the organisations said: “The Queen’s Speech set out the Government’s intention to improve access to mental health services over the next five years. This is very much welcome. Our plan sets out a range of actions needed to make that happen.” Five key priority areas identified are:
- Ensuring ‘fair funding’ for mental health – with a commitment to increase investment in mental health services in real terms over the lifetime of the Parliament.
- ‘Giving children a good start in life’, including committing to take forward the recommendations of the recently published Children and Young People Mental Health Taskforce report, Future in Mind.
- Improving physical healthcare for people with mental health problems, including developing tailored public health programmes.
- ‘Improving the lives of people with mental health problems’ – committing to extending Time to Change funding over the life of this Parliament; putting in place better employment support nationwide for those out of work and seeking employment, and ‘urgently reviewing’ the effectiveness of using benefit conditions and sanctions among people with mental health problems.
- Enabling better access to mental health services – with a commitment to consult on proposals to introduce new national waiting time guarantees for mental health services in the first year of the Parliament.