Today the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves delivered her .
Responding to the announcement, Dr Lade Smith CBE, President of the 网曝黑料, said:
“We welcome greater investment in the NHS, particularly at a time when there is a reduced financial investment across all departments. It was disappointing not to receive any new investment into mental health services today. However, we await further detail on how the overall investment will be applied to mental health.
“Past increases to NHS funding have not given mental health services a fair share. The Government must support services to meet increasing need by allocating a proportional amount of NHS funding to mental health care.
“It is not only people with mental illness, those around them and their clinicians who pay the price, but the impact on the public purse of not adequately resourcing mental health care is enormous, with mental ill-health estimated to cost ?300 billion per year.
“Reaffirmed commitments to employ 8,500 additional mental health staff and expand mental health support teams in schools are positive but are simply inadequate compared to rising levels of need.
"There are more than 2 million people in contact with mental health services, up from 1.4 million just five years ago. Many are young adults whose health and ability to work is being compromised because they are unable to get the care and support they need for treatable psychiatric conditions such as major depression, eating disorders and psychosis. Unlike everyday psychological distress which can affect anyone, these are specific illnesses which need specialist mental health input to ensure improvement.
“Mental health services are doing their best to deliver better care to more people at a time when their share of NHS funding is being reduced. This is particularly difficult given that mental illness accounts for 20% of the disease burden of the NHS. Staff on the frontline cannot continuously be expected to deliver the best outcomes for patients with only 8.7% of the NHS’s budget.
"Previously, we have identified planned cuts to eating disorder and perinatal mental health services that would leave people with worse access to care in many areas across England. As the Department of Health and NHS England merge, there is an opportunity to make sure Integrated Care Boards use their increased autonomy to give equal priority to physical and mental illnesses.
“The commissioning of services should be evidence-based, clinically led and based on people’s needs, not ideology. We must make mental healthcare a priority and this should be reflected across the health service, from improvements in digital technologies to expansions of the workforce.
“Every investment in mental healthcare is also an investment in our nation’s workforce and the economy. Around 75% of mental illness occurs by the age of 24, disproportionately affecting young people as they should be entering one of the most productive periods of their lives.
“We know there has been a large increase in the number of people who are disabled due to a mental illness in recent years but those who receive timely psychiatric care and employment support are often able to work. Those who are not able to work can often stabilise or improve their health conditions.
“Plans to reduce and freeze health related benefits risk pushing many people with mental illness into poverty, potentially making them increasingly unwell and placing more pressure on already overstretched mental health services. Restricting access to PIP payments may even drive people out of work as they lose access to the support which keeps them well.
“The UK Government must take this into account when reforming the welfare system and ensure resources for employment support, benefits, and mental healthcare enable people to have a better quality of life.
“The NHS 10-Year-Plan represents an important opportunity to put mental healthcare on an equal footing with physical health, but its impact will be curtailed without adequate associated funding. We also hope to see a recommitment to fund the doubling of medical school places and retain the healthcare workforce within the Long-Term Workforce Plan.
"The College is ready to work with the Government and NHS to ensure people with mental illness receive the best possible care.”
For further information, please contact:
- Email: press@rcpsych.ac.uk
- Twitter:
- Out-of-hours contact number: 07860 755896