Funding guarantee needed for mental health parity

The British Medical Association (BMA) has warned that government plans to improve mental health services remain doubtful unless guarantees over funding are given.

Prime Minister Theresa May recently announced new measures to improve mental health offering, including extra training for teachers and more established partnerships between local health services and schools to identify pupils experiencing mental health problems at an area age.

Discussing the relationship between physical and mental health, May stated that ‘parity means parity’, before announcing further measures in expanding digital support services and crisis cafes, and a Care Quality Commission-led review of child and adolescent mental health services nationwide.

Gary Wannan, BMA community care committee, has welcomed the move but warned that ministers had to ensure that £250 million worth of funding granted last year made its way to frontline services if parity was to be neared. A report published by the Education Policy Institute in November 2016 claimed that many providers had not seen little of the new investment.

Wannan said: “Mental health services are in desperate need of investment, and despite the promises of more money there is evidence it is not coming through fully. Many young patients, in particular, have to travel hundreds of miles for treatment, when they would be better treated nearer home.

‘Many do not have any access to outpatient talking treatments for common mental illness such as depression or have to wait a year or more, [and] others have tragically taken their own lives before receiving treatment. The NHS has let these patients down.

“Until we have the guarantee that extra funding will be provided, there are question marks over whether the measures outlined in this speech will have the necessary impact.”