Mental health workforce is at breaking point

A survey of over 1,000 mental health care professionals, carried out by the BMA, has laid bare the terrible impact of a shortage of mental health staff in the face of rising demand.

Produced in collaboration with the Royal College of Nursing and the Association of Clinical Psychologists, the survey reveals that over half of respondents said they were too busy to provide the care they would like to be able to give, with 44 per cent saying that they felt demoralised and the same number saying their workload was unmanageable.

The BMA also says that doctors had concerns over the level of staffing on mental health wards, with 47 per cent saying there was a shortage of one or more medical staff, while half were concerned about the skill mix.

The doctors’ union has set out a number of recommendations to improve the current situation, including doubling mental health funding from clinical commissioning groups as it warns that many of the government’s mental health workforce commitments are not on track to be met.

Andrew Molodynski, BMA mental health policy lead, said: “This study highlights the very serious problems facing the mental health sector with a workforce near to breaking point. There are desperate shortages of care staff of all types across mental health, with doctors and nurses on the frontline overworked and demoralised – and patient care is suffering as a result.

“Mental healthcare accounts for 25 per cent of all healthcare activity and yet our funding settlement stands at around 14 per cent of healthcare spending at best. This is not right and has to improve. There must be a step-change in the government’s approach to ensure we move beyond just ‘parity of esteem’ for physical and mental health. The same level of resources must be made available in mental health so that the vulnerable patients who depend on these services can expect the same level of care, and the same level of outcomes as they do in physical healthcare. Anything less is morally unacceptable."

Catherine Gamble, RCN professional lead for mental health, said: “Shifts are consistently one or more staff members down leaving the rest upset that they can’t provide the care patients deserve and worried that lives could be put at risk if this continues. With so many too busy to deliver care, nurses aren’t able to spend time with families, develop therapeutic relationships and implement psychosocial interventions. Unless there is urgent investment in growing the nursing workforce, the pressures will continue to grow to the point where it will no longer be possible to attract nurses to work in the NHS, and parity of esteem for physical and mental health remains a goal yet to be realised.”