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18.06.12

Mental health ‘discrimination’ in the NHS

Mental illness affects a huge number of people yet only a minority receive the help they need, a new report shows. The fact that effective psychological treatments exist but are not widely available is a form of discrimination within the NHS, the authors argue.

Nearly half of all ill-health in the under-65s is mental, yet only a quarter of those people are involved in any form of treatment, the London School of Economics (LSE) Mental Health Policy Group found.

The cost of implementing greater access to talking therapies and CBT would be covered by the savings on physical healthcare, incapacity benefits and lost taxes, they suggest.

The report states: “It is a real scandal that we have 6 million people with depression or crippling anxiety conditions and 700,000 children with problem behaviours, anxiety or depression. Yet three quarters of each group get no treatment.”

The group is calling for the Improving Access to Psychological Treatment (IAPT) programme to be completed, with a major expansion from 2014 to ensure more people receive treatment.

Professor Lord Layard, of the LSE Centre for Economic Performance, said: “If local NHS Commissioners want to improve their budgets, they should all be expanding their provision of psychological therapy. It will save them so much on their physical healthcare budgets that the net cost will be little or nothing.

“Mental health is so central to the health of individuals and of society that it needs its own cabinet minister.”

Sean Duggan, chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health, called the statistics “shocking” and added: “The savings that can be made in physical health care costs from better mental health care alone make further investment in mental health a necessity. Treating the mental health component of a physical illness pays for itself.”

Dr Andrew McCulloch, chief executive at the Mental Health Foundation said: “The Government has rightly committed to a parity of esteem between physical health and mental health in the Health and Social Care Bill, and surely they must now deliver on what they have promised. “

The care services minister, Paul Burstow, said: “Mental ill-health costs £105bn per year and I have always been clear that it should be treated as seriously as physical health problems … the Coalition Government is investing £400m to make sure talking therapies are available to people of all ages who need them. This investment is already delivering remarkable results.”

To view the report, visit: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/special/cepsp26.pdf

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