Six of England’s leading health organisations have joined forces to call for mental care to become a national priority.
Centre for Mental Health, the Mental Health Foundation, Mental Health Network, Mind, Rethink Mental Illness and the Royal College of Psychiatrists have united to produce a plan for what the Government should do in its first 100 days of the new Parliament to improve the lives of people with mental health problems.
The report – Improving England’s Mental Health: The First 100 Days and Beyond – sets out a number of practical actions the new Government should take to ensure mental and physical health are valued equally.
It said there were a number of practical measures ministers could take quickly to ensure mental and physical health are valued equally.
As well as working to ensure better funding for mental health both in the Budget and the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review, the plan called on the government to commit to proposals for national waiting time targets for mental health.
The also reiterated that a renewed focus must be placed on improving the physical health of people with mental health problems through public health programmes for obesity, smoking, and harmful drinking.
In addition, ministers were urged to commit to taking forward the recommendations of March’s Children and Young People Mental Health Taskforce report, which called for a series of reforms to provision for this group.
Setting out the priorities, the six organisations said mental health services had been massively underfunded for a long time, and had suffered a cut of almost £600m in real terms over the last parliament.
The group said: “The Queen’s speech this week set out the government’s intention to improve access to mental health services over the next five years.
“This is very much welcome. These first 100 days represent a valuable opportunity for the government to meaningfully demonstrate its commitment to improving the lives of people with mental health problems. Our plan sets out a range of actions needed to make that happen, of which increased investment will be vital.”