News Date: Thursday 11th May 2006
Conservatives' Challenge to Government on Mental Health Provision
In anticipation of her speech at the National Mental Health Partnership Conference in Bristol tomorrow, Shadow Health Minister Tim Loughton has set out the following challenges to the Secretary of State for Health:
- Will she pledge that resources for mental health services will grow faster than the average of NHS budgets to make up for the shortfalls suffered over the last 7 years?
- Will she agree to give parliamentary time to a debate on the state of mental health services to help raise the profile of the issue at Westminster as her Government have failed to do for 9 years?
- Will she extend the right to choose within mental health services as a priority?
- Will she take up the recommendations of Lord Layard's report and set a timetable to create up to 10,000 mental health professionals able to offer CBT?
- When will she end the practice of children being admitted to adult acute mental health wards?
- What action will she take to reduce the number of children on anti-depressants?
- Will she make it a priority to recruit more child specialist psychiatrists and psychologist and bring referral times down to under 3 months?
- Will she set a date for doubling the school nurse workforce with a particular responsibility to improve the mental health of school age children?
- When will she eliminate mixed sex wards in mental hospitals?
- Will she establish additional professional outreach teams to cater for the particular needs of BME mental health patients who are reluctant to present?
- Will she impress upon the Home Secretary the strong links between cannabis use and mental illness?
- What is she doing about the alarming incidence of mental health amongst prisoners?
Commenting, Shadow Health Minister, Tim Loughton said:
"Unless her speech tomorrow addresses the issues we have raised she will continue to preside over a Mental Health Service which is the poor relation of the NHS.
"Despite the Government's claim in 1997 that mental health would be a priority, nine years down the line nothing has been done to fulfil this promise. With the Government's own mental health tsar Louis Appleby voicing his concern that mental health trusts are being penalised for financial mismanagement in other parts of the NHS I await Patricia Hewitt's announcement in the hope that her Department will have finally decided to give mental health services the resources they so desperately need.
"Patricia Hewitt urgently needs to address the number of patients being denied access to a counsellor or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Only 10% of people suffering from depression are receiving any kind of psychological therapy yet talking therapies are widely recognised as the most successful way of treating those suffering from suffering from mental health problems.
"Mental health patients are being put on a chemical cosh of drugs which in the long run costs the state much more money. This false economy is clearly shown by the Government's own admission that there are over 1 million people claiming Incapacity Benefit for mental health problems. These claimants cost the state ?10 billion and compare to only 847,600 people on Jobseekers Allowance. This anomaly can be put right if mental health patients are given treatments that work immediately rather than, as in some cases, having to wait as long as 84 weeks.
"The Secretary of State for Health must show she understands the needs of those suffering from diseases such as depression and commit herself to providing the adequate treatment for all those who need to help either to get on with their lives or return to employment."
ENDS
For further information, please contact Jenny Parsons 020 7219 2493
Note to Editors:
1) For further information on Mental Health Services please see the Opposition Day Debate on Management of the NHS held by the Conservatives on 9th May 2006. Please visit : http://pubs1.tso.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm060509/debtext/60509-05.htm#06050969000001
?, Tim Loughton MP , 2006
