The Government plans to invest a further £15m into community-based care to support those with mental illness, the Prime Minister has announced today.
Speaking to the Charity Commission, Theresa May said the Government will build on its initial investment of £15m, which led to 88 new places of support including crisis cafes and community clinics, with a further £15m.
The announcement comes in a wave of new measures aimed at improving mental health support, including a review of CAMHS services.
The Government plans to invest a further £15m into community-based care to support those with mental illness, the Prime Minister has announced today.
Speaking to the Charity Commission, Theresa May said the Government will build on its initial investment of £15m, which led to 88 new places of support including crisis cafes and community clinics, with a further £15m.
The announcement comes in a wave of new measures aimed at improving mental health support, including a review of CAMHS services.
The review will be headed by the Care Quality Commission to identify the opportunities and pitfalls of the service.
Lord Dennis Stevenson and Paul Farmer CBE, chief executive of Mind and chair of the NHS Mental Health Taskforce will also be leading a review on how employers can ensure employees can “thrive” through periods of mental illness.
Eighteen million working days were lost to sickness absences caused by mental health conditions in 2015, costing employers around £9 billion each year.
May said: “For too long mental illness has been something of a hidden injustice in our country, shrouded in a completely unacceptable stigma and dangerously disregarded as a secondary issue to physical health.
“Yet left unaddressed, it destroys lives, it separates people from each other and deepens the divisions within our society.”
May added that the total cost of mental illness is £105bn, which is comparable to the annual budget of the entire NHS.
The government has also pledged £67.7m to a digital mental health package so that people worried about their mental health can check their symptoms online and access digital therapy immediately.
Sean Duggan, chief executive of the Mental Health Network at NHS Confederation, said: “Mental health is worsening among children and there is too much variation in the care available to people of all ages.
“Increasing the public’s own awareness and acceptance of mental health is also an important step in helping people to seek help at the earliest time.
“Mental health services still need the Government’s support to speed-up promised funding, much of which is delayed, but we are very pleased that mental health is being accepted as a major priority going forward.”
