Mental health service budgets ‘cut by 8%’

Mental health trusts in England have seen their budgets fall by more than 8% in real terms over the course of this parliament, figures suggest.

The reduction, worth almost £600m, was revealed through research by BBC News and the online journal Community Care.

Mental health social work fast-track scheme backed by £1.6m of government funding

A training scheme to fast-track graduates into mental health social work will be backed by £1.6m of government funding next year, care minister Norman Lamb is expected to announce tonight.

The Think Ahead programme will use the money to fund its operational costs in 2015-16. Costs include recruiting students, designing the academic curriculum, and developing a leadership training element for the scheme.

Nurse Karen Reissmann to stand in closed mental health Edale Unit , Ward Against Labour MP Gerald Kauffman

Karen Reissmann, a local nurse who is standing against Labour MP Gerald Kauffman, said, “People in Gorton are looking for change. There is a deep sense of betrayal at Labour’s failure to represent ordinary people. It cuts through every conversation, even with Labour loyalists.”

Child mental health faces ‘complex and severe’ problems

Child MENTAL HEALTH services England must be prioritised more to tackle the complex and severe problems they face, a leaked draft taskforce report says.

The review, headed by senior NHS England and Department of Health officials, said addressing the issue must become a “national ambition”.

It highlights rising waiting times and the lack of age-appropriate hospital services.

But it noted attempts had STARTED being made to improve care.

The taskforce was set up by ministers. In particular, its draft report praised the push by the government on MENTAL HEALTH since 2011, when ministers said they wanted “parity of esteem with physical health services”.

Mental health warning to councils running own services

Short-term savings in mental health budgets may lead to long term problems, the charity warns

Local councils trying to provide mental health care are “storing up problems” for the future, a charity has claimed.

Replacing specialist services with generic care to cut costs would result in long-term problems for some, Hafal chief executive Alun Thomas said.

He claimed many people would “end up losing portions of their lives”.

The Welsh Local Government Association said councils were doing their “utmost” to protect services for vulnerable people but faced “massive pressures”.

Pledge to end locking up mentally ill in police cells

Authorities in England have pledged to bring an end to the practice of detaining people with mental health problems in police cells.

The NHS, councils and police are now set to come up with plans for how they will achieve this, the government said.

Care minister Norman Lamb said real progress had already been made, and added that “in many parts of the country it’s now a thing of the past”

Are the Tories turning back the clock on young people’s mental health?

Young people’s mental health services across the UK are in dire straits.

A recent report by the Royal College of Nursing showed that government spending cuts have led to the loss of more than 3,300 mental health posts over the last four years and 1,500 fewer beds than in 2010.

A report by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) revealed worrying increases in the number of young people being treated in adult psychiatric wards.

£50m cut from child mental health services since 2010, govt admits

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has been criticized after it was revealed £50 million was cut from the children’s mental health budget – more than 6 percent in real terms – since 2010 when the Conservative-led coalition came to power.

According to government figures, the coalition spent £717 million on mental health from 2012 to 2013, compared to £766 million spent under the Labour government from 2009 to 2010.

Tory councillor Mark Winn says food banks are only used by ‘those with drug, alcohol and mental health problems’

A Tory councillor has provoked a Twitter backlash after claiming that food banks are only visited by “those with drug, alcohol and mental health problems”.

Mark Winn, who is also a civil servant with the Ministry of Defence and until recently held an appointment on Buckinghamshire council’s health scrutiny committee, hit out at what he called “the BBC doing Labour’s bidding” after watching an episode of Casualty on Saturday night.

Mental health patient admissions to A&E set to reach record levels

Mental health patient admissions to A&E set to reach record levels

The number of people with a mental health condition admitted to hospital as an emergency is likely to reach its highest level ever this winter, a former health minister has warned.

An estimated 280,000 mental health patients will be admitted to hospital as an emergency in the last three months of 2014, latest analysis suggests as emergency doctors warned that overstretched A&E departments are the wrong place for people in mental distress.