Mind has found that local authorities in England spend an average of just 1.36 per cent of their public health budget on mental health – despite having a remit to prevent both physical and mental health problems in the communities they serve.
It said: “The total annual spend (based on figures from Local Authority Revenue Expenditure & Financing 2014-15 Budget: England) by local authorities on preventing physical health problems is considerable, including increasing physical activity (£76 million), anti-obesity (£108 m), smoking cessation (£160 m), and sexual health initiatives (£671 m). Mind’s research indicates that the equivalent spend for preventing mental health problems is a fraction of this, at less than £40 m. When reporting on spend for different public health priorities, local authorities file public mental health under ‘Miscellaneous’.”
The mental health charity says this ‘comes despite mental health problems costing the country an estimated £100 billion each year through lost working days, benefits, lost tax revenue, and the cost of treatment, and accounting for 23 per cent of the total burden of disease in the UK’.
Mind said: “Data on public mental health spend was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. It also showed that some areas don’t plan to spend a single penny on preventing mental health problems this year. Responses from many areas painted a picture of enormous confusion about what local public health teams should do to help prevent people becoming mentally unwell. In others, it was clear that public health teams didn’t know it was part of their responsibility in the first place.”