By Ross HawkinsPolitical correspondent, BBC Radio 4 Today Police chiefs in England and Wales say they may be unlawfully detaining arrested people needing mental health care more than 2,000 times a year. Some people have been held in police cells for several days because there is no hospital bed for them, the National Police […]
New figures reveal half of CCGs plan to reduce proportion of their budgets spent on mental health
Cash-strapped Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England said they will reduce the proportion of their budgets spent on offering mental health support in 2017/18, despite previous commitments from Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt that spending would increase.
Delivering the PM’s pledge should not rest on the shoulders of overstretched staff, it must be backed with appropriate resources
The prime minister, Theresa May, has pledged to tackle mental health stigma as part of her vision for her “shared society”. May announced plans to transform the way mental illness is dealt with not in our hospitals but in classrooms, at work and in our communities. The initiative has been largely welcomed, although there is concern that this is yet another governmental policy that hinges on goodwill rather than identifiable resource.
The mother of a Somerset teenager who took his own life after struggling with mental health issues has spoken out about planned Government mental health reforms, which she says are needed ‘right now’.
By: Sheridan Robins Charley Marks was 18 years old when he committed suicide back in 2014 and was visited by community psychiatric nurses just hours before his death. His mother Jo Clement has since set up the charity In Charley’s Memory, which aims to raise awareness and support young people who are battling mental issues. […]
A mother whose son killed himself after being told he would have to wait three months for ‘life-saving’ psychotherapy has urged the government to pump more cash into hard-hit services – or risk losing more vulnerable young people.
Former care minister Norman Lamb has revealed his son was told he would have to wait six months to get mental health treatment on the NHS after he was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder.
The Lib Dem said his son Archie, a music producer now in his late 20s, was left feeling like he was “going mad” after he spent several years struggling to cope with his illness as a teenager alone. Mr Lamb said that was “desperate” and faced with the “horribly long” wait they paid for […]
An innovative mental health street triage service for Dorset is reducing the number of times police have to detain mental health sufferers in custody.
Nearly half the number of people detained under Section 136 in Dorset have ended up in custody in 2014, compared with the previous year. Figures show 44% less people were placed in custody during 2014 as there were in 2013 as a result of displaying a mental health condition.
