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A group of mental health experts including academics, health practitioners, charity bosses and ‘lived experience’ experts have called on the government to reinstate the canceled 10-year mental health strategy.
This follows the release of a new report from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on a healthy and fit childhood: The major illness strategy: a 10-year failure for mental health.
In a hand-delivered letter to 10 Downing Street on Thursday July 20, 56 mental health officials have called on Rishi Sunak to reverse his government’s decision to scrap the 10-year mental health strategy that was due to be released. This year.
In 2022, the government launched a call for evidence to help them develop a long-awaited 10-year strategy to tackle an alarming rise in mental illness in the UK. However, in January 2023, Health Secretary Steve Barclay, in a shock announcement in the House of Commons, said the The ten-year plan was abandoned. Instead, poor mental health was to be incorporated into a new “major illness strategy” that would address several physical health issues such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, musculoskeletal disease and respiratory disease.
This decision disappointed the mental health sector, which opposed the abandonment of a much-needed strategy to improve mental health care; long considered a “Cinderella service”.
“I’m concerned that lumping all mental health issues together under the same umbrella of poor mental health just won’t get the attention and funding they urgently need.”
Says Professor Rory O’Connor of the Suicide Research Laboratory at the University of Glasgow. “As we continue to recover from the pandemic and endure the cost of living crisis, now is not the time to prioritize mental health. This is all the more concerning as we know that the impact of recent years has disproportionately affected the mental health of the most vulnerable in our society. Pre-existing inequalities have been further exacerbated during COVID-19 and I fear that abandoning the 10-year mental health plan to make way for the major illnesses strategy is a step backwards. We face a national mental health crisis that requires an urgent whole-of-government approach to address mental health complexities and inequities.
In February, 14 mental health charities write an open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling for a dedicated mental health strategy. Now this report provides the evidence that shows why this is necessary.
“Good mental health is essential if everyone in our living and working society is to thrive and prosper,” said the president of APPG Steve McCabe, MP for Birmingham.
“This was the resounding message from over 5,000 individuals and organizations in response to the government’s recent public consultation on wellbeing and we are proud to present this case in our report.
The abandonment of a 10-year mental health strategy and the place of mental health among others in a new major conditions strategy leaves people with mental illness with underfunded and understaffed services, and subjected to diagnosis and treatment that does not benefit from the well-funded research base supporting many physical illnesses.
Our six-point plan for mental health addresses inequities and disparities in mental health service delivery; banishing centuries of stigma and laying the foundation for a truly ‘whole person’ health service.
There could be no better way to mark the 75th anniversary of our beloved NHS and a better tribute to the ambition of our 21st century UK if all its citizens, regardless of their circumstances, unite in the resolution to make this new beginning a reality.
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