23.09.13
Mental health services ‘straining at the seams’ – with worse to come
Mental illness costs the economy over £100bn a year and services to tackle it are “straining at the seams” according to a major new study by the Mental Health Foundation.
But even though services are already stretched to the limits – there have been reports that in recent weeks there have been no private or public inpatient beds available anywhere in England – the future is looking even more bleak.
The MHF report, ‘Starting Today: Future of Mental Health Services’, says that if prevalence rates for mental disorders do not fall, by 2030 there will be 2 million more adults and 100,000 more children with mental health problems.
The levels of co-morbid mental and physical health problems are also rising, the inquiry found.
Mental health services cost more than any other area of health, including cancer and heart disease.
Dinesh Bhugra, co-chair of the Inquiry Advisory Panel, president-elect of the World Psychiatric Association and Professor of Mental Health and Diversity at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, said: “A range of factors will undoubtedly impact on future mental health services such as a larger population with more people reaching later life and increased expectations of care and support.
“We need to start taking action today to address future challenges. We cannot expect mental health services simply to muddle along with no clear sense of what is required, and sleepwalk into the future. If we do so, we will be failing all those who in the future need mental health care and their families, as well as the staff who work in mental health services.
“Our Inquiry found that the case for more preventative work is undeniable. Lacking a ‘cure’ for mental illness, a reduction in the number of people across the UK developing mental disorders appears to us to be the only way that mental health services will adequately cope with demand in 20-30 years’ time.
“We need fresh ways of working in mental health, ensuring the best use of available resources and working in truly integrated fashion. New technology will no doubt bring about more changes as well as challenges. But much of what in our view needs to be done is simply implementing known good practice that already exists. Failure to provide good, integrated mental health care is not a failure of understanding what needs to be done, it is a failure of actually implementing good practice in organisational strategies and the day to day business of providing people with the care and treatment that they want. We need to start today to rectify that.”
The reports’ key recommendations focus on greater personalisation of services, integrated physical, mental and social health care, ‘whole-life’ mental health services, workforce development, research and new technologies, and mental health to be treated as a core public health issue.
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