Lord Darzi’s independent review of the state of the NHS sets out clearly why we must invest in the nation’s mental health, Centre for Mental Health chief executive Andy Bell said today.
“Today’s report makes the case for long-term change to the way our national health service works, as well as urgent action to turn around the nation’s deteriorating mental health. The report says that ‘it is our mental health that appears to have deteriorated most significantly in the past decade’ and that this has led to rising referrals to services that cannot keep up with demand.
“The report notes that the public health grant to local councils fell by 25% after 2015. This must be reversed so that local authorities can do more to protect people’s mental and physical health in the communities we all live in. But we also need a national mental health plan and a mental health policy test across government to do more to create good health and prevent illness nationwide.
“The report describes long waiting lists for mental health care. These have been hidden behind waits for hospital treatment, but they are just as distressing for those made to wait and their families. So we need to invest in mental health services and set waiting time standards for mental health care that have the same status as those for elective care in the NHS.
“The report describes a ‘fundamental problem in the distribution of resources between mental health and physical health [care]’. We agree. It’s not right that mental health services get less than 10% of the NHS budget for over 20% of health need. The Government and the NHS in England must set a clear ambition to change this. Mental ill health has an economic and social cost that’s twice the size of the entire NHS budget in England, at £300 billion a year. Investing in better mental health, including for people with long-term physical conditions, will be good for people, good for the economy, and build a healthier future for us all.
“Nowhere is the need for investment in the NHS more apparent than in the mental health estate. The report rightly highlights that people are receiving mental health support within outdated and unsafe facilities, and too often far from home. This once again highlights the need for vastly overdue modernisation of mental health hospital buildings and facilities. We must have capital funding on a sufficient scale to replace or update an estate that is unacceptably poor and untherapeutic.
“Today’s report yet again talks about the need for a shift towards preventing illness, and a move away from hospital to community care. We’ve heard this so many times before in reviews of the NHS. Now we need assurances that it will be different this time. That we will get investment in public health and social care – not just platitudes. That we will have fair funding for mental health services that is ‘locked-in’ and ‘irreversible’ to grow and support the wellbeing of our mental health workforce. And that we will begin a shift away from relying on hospital care when community support would be better to meet people’s needs.
“We welcome the report’s recognition of the urgency of tackling physical health inequality among people with a mental illness. It also recognises the need to tackle racial inequity in mental health care, especially the disproportionate use of the Mental Health Act with Black communities. These are injustices that mean the NHS must do more than offer more of the same. It needs to change the way it meets people’s needs, working better with voluntary and community organisations that can help to equalise health care.
“Lord Darzi’s report is a timely and important call to action. It requires a whole government response. Together, we can build a mentally healthier nation. We can modernise the NHS. And we can invest in health and social care that meets people’s needs equitably and effectively, wherever we live, whatever we need, and whoever we are.”
