The mental health crisis is bad — and here’s how the UK is handling it

The UK is launching a major effort to keep those with mental health issues out of jail cells.

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The federal government in the United States has slashed mental health funding by about 40 percent between 2004 and 2014, and the mental health crisis continues to worsen worldwide, but the UK government is taking a big step to combat it.

A new UK government scheme would involve spending £15 million on keeping people with mental health problems from being locked up in jails, according to a Mirror report.

The government has opened bidding on a fund that would support new health and community-based locations to prevent those who are having a mental health crisis from ending up in a jail cell when they’ve committed no crime.

The government is trying to end a long-running practice of simply throwing a person into a jail when health services can’t be reached. The money would go to fund both new places of safety and to refurbish existing sites.

“It is estimated that only about 17% of U.S adults are considered to be in a state of optimal mental health,” the CDC states on its website. “There is emerging evidence that positive mental health is associated with improved health outcomes.”

Credit: Morning Ticker

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