Mental Health

Clegg announces first waiting targets for mental illness

People with mental illness will be treated with the same urgency as those who are physically unwell, with the introduction of the first ever waiting targets for mental health, to be announced by Nick Clegg today.

In his keynote address to the Lib Dem party conference in Glasgow, Clegg will announce that those referred by doctors for talking therapies, for conditions such as depression or anxiety, should start treatment within six weeks. The maximum waiting time will be 18 weeks, the same as for those waiting for treatment for physical problems, such as hip and knee surgery.

Young people with psychosis for the first time will be seen within 14 days, the same target as cancer patients. Suicidal patients will also get the same priority as those with suspected heart attacks.

Clegg is expected to tell Lib Dem delegates: “Let’s be the first party to give mental health the status it deserves.”

He has promised that his party will “end the discrimination against mental health for good”.

The plans have Conservative support and so will begin to be rolled out from April next year. The target will be phased in over five years and so far £120m has been allocated to support it. This is not new money, however, so it will have to come from elsewhere in the health budget.

Talking about the plans, Clegg said: “At least one in four of us will experience a mental health problem in our lives. Whilst I have nothing but praise for the tremendous work of NHS staff, the system is still letting patients down.

“It’s wrong that relatives and friends needing a hip operation can expect treatment within a clear time frame but someone with a debilitating mental health condition has no clarity about when they will get help.

“For years, NHS waiting standards have existed for patients with physical ailments and they have drastically cut long waits. Now we are finally ending the injustice of people with mental health conditions waiting far too long for treatment with the first ever waiting time standards for NHS mental health services.”

Other measures included in the £120m investment include more money for psychiatry services in acute hospitals, so that people who go to A&E departments in a mental health crisis, for example if they have self-harmed, will get the right help at the right time, and a £7m investment by NHS England in child psychiatry. This will create 50 new in-patient beds for children and young people and better case management so that children with specialist needs get the right care in the right place.

Clegg is also expected to say that his party will go much further if they remain in government after the next election. Half of the £1bn funding increase he announced at the start of the Lib Dem conference for the NHS would be earmarked for mental health, allowing waiting times to be introduced for conditions such as eating disorders and bipolar disease.

The extra money for mental health during the next Parliament would be paid for partly by raising the rate of capital gains tax from 28% to between 35% and 40% for taxpayers on the 40p higher rate. The amount of capital gains exempt from CGT would be cut from £10,900 to £2,500 a year.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, the mental health charity, heralded today’s announcement as a “landmark moment” for mental health.

“For too long, people accessing mental health services have not had the same right to timely treatment that we all expect if we have a physical health problem,” he said. “We know from our work as part of the We Need to Talk coalition that, as a consequence, one in ten still wait over a year to access talking therapy. Today’s announcement not only acknowledges the unfair imbalance that has long existed between physical and mental health services, it is the first clear commitment from government to take the practical steps needed to tackle it.

“Over recent years we have heard fine words from the Department of Health and NHS England about finally treating mental health with the same importance we give physical health but, in the face of cuts to services, the reality has been that the gap has widened and services have failed thousands. It’s good to see some additional funding committed in this plan.”

The Mental Health Network, part of the NHS Confederation, welcomed the launch of the plan and the additional funding, saying it outlined “exactly the sorts of actions that must be a priority for whole system, both now and in the next Parliament”.

(Library photo of Nick Clegg: PA Wire / Danny Lawson)

Tell us what you think – have your say below, or email us directly at [email protected]