19.10.17
DH opens £15m fund for mental health crisis care
The Department of Health has announced a new £15m fund to help people in danger of having a mental health crisis.
The ‘Beyond Places of Safety’ scheme plans to focus on helping people in the lead-up to potential mental health incidents, in order to ensure the safest possible environment. It will also aim to develop modern approaches to supporting people who have experienced a crisis.
This scheme is the follow-up to ‘Improving Places of Safety’ – which ran from 2015-17 and aimed to reduce the number of people with mental health conditions who were put into police cells under the Mental Health Act.
Although it has received the same amount of funding, the new scheme has a wider remit than the original scheme because it includes care after crisis events.
“As part of the government’s commitment to improving mental health throughout society, we are determined to go further to help people who are experiencing a crisis or feel they are approaching one,” commented health secretary Jeremy Hunt.
“We want make sure that therapeutic and empathetic support is in place to stop people falling ill, support them through crisis and help them recover.”
The programme will look at victims of conditions such as psychosis, bipolar disorder and personality disorders which can cause people to be a risk to themselves or others.
Jackie Doyle-Price, minister for mental health, said: “There can be few experiences more frightening and disorientating than mental health crisis, and I commend the teams already providing brilliant support with help from our previous grant scheme.
“This additional funding will give local areas scope to do even more, and I look forward to seeing lots of innovative ideas for improving urgent and emergency mental healthcare across the country.”
The new scheme comes in the wake of calls from NHS Clinical Commissioners to implement better practice in linking up mental health and primary care services.
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