Less hushed tones, less whispering; more frank and open discussion.
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The government’s announcement, much of which Berger argued contained nothing new, comes a few weeks ahead of the delayed yet much-anticipated mental health taskforce report, chaired by Mind’s Paul Farmer.
Prime Minister David Cameron says he wants to see better support for new and expectant mums and the first waiting times targets for teenagers with eating disorders.
He and others believe talking about reforming mental healthcare as a way to fix the country’s gun violence epidemic propagates a stigma that’s often responsible for the lack of treatment among nearly half of the estimated 44 million Americans with mental illness.
As previously announced, new waiting time targets will be rolled out for teenagers with eating disorders and people experiencing psychosis, and crisis home resolution and home treatment teams will continue to be deployed across community healthcare systems.
The mental health of new mothers will be another focus of the spending, with £290 million to go towards better treatment by 2020.
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said that for both the public and the NHS, improving mental health had shot up the national “to do” list.
“Mental health is hugely important in any discussion about improving life chances and mental health problems can affect anyone, from mums-to-be preparing for their first child to older people at risk of isolation”, he said.
Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., said in a column about Obama’s executive actions that improved mental health care is needed.
THOUGH mental illness remains one of the most stigmatised illness categories worldwide, it is important to know that gender is a critical determinant of mental health and mental illness.
It is part of a £600m investment in mental health that was announced by George Osborne at the time of the Autumn Statement a year ago.
Today, the Prime Minister will announce £247 million will be deployed over the next 5 years to make sure that every emergency department has mental health support and, as a global leading effort, will make sure that these services are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in at least half of England’s acute hospitals by 2020.
The Prime Minister is expected to say: “Mental illness isn’t contagious”. He added that as a society, we should be able to tell anyone struggling to ask their doctor for help, talk to someone and that support will always be available.
“I believe truly working on mental health reform – which, to be clear, is not the same thing as throwing money at a problem – would make great strides toward curbing the violence the president discussed on Tuesday”, he wrote. “The taskforce will be setting out the road map for the next five years, a transformational plan that will require a commitment at every level, from Government right through to every local community”.
The Conservative leader said that such measures would end the insensitive and inhumane experience of “shame and embarrassment” long suffered by mental health patients in the UK.
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In a keynote speech on vulnerable groups and poverty, Cameron will reveal a string of packages to tackle the more pressing issues of mental health nationwide – but focusing less on preventative measures, however, as shadow mental health minister Luciana Berger MP pointed out.
