Plans to create 100 more community mental health centres across England are a welcome step on the road to better and faster support, Centre for Mental Health chief executive Andy Bell said today.
Welcoming the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s announcement today, Andy Bell said: “Community mental health centres have the potential to make mental health support easier and faster to access, and to be part of their local community, not separate from it. We have been evaluating the first six centres and will be reporting on our findings later this year. We are delighted that capital funding for 100 more has been confirmed today.
“We remain concerned about plans to develop ‘mental health emergency departments’ before the model has been properly tested. It is essential that anyone with a mental health emergency, including children and young people, gets access to support quickly. And too many have been made to wait too long, or been treated poorly, in emergency departments. We urge the Government to proceed with caution so that the new centres are safe, inclusive and effective.
“We welcome the Secretary of State’s commitment to the forthcoming mental health strategy. This is the first chance in more than a decade for a truly cross-government approach to mental health. It can put prevention at its heart by taking evidence-based steps to promote and protect our mental health, and turn around rising prevalence of mental illness. And it can set higher standards of support, including robust access and waiting time standards for mental health services.
“We hope that the Government will soon make a clear commitment to implement its manifesto pledge of a young people’s mental health hub in every community. Little progress has been made in the first two years of this Parliament. Yet these hubs could provide early help for young people when they’re struggling with their mental health, before they need NHS treatment, and give them a better chance of remaining in education or getting into work.
“We’re delighted that the Secretary of State is taking action on mental health. It has been neglected by successive governments for too long. This must now be backed up by investment, most crucially in the health and social care workforce needed to provide effective mental health care, in primary care where there are still major gaps in support, and in new facilities and digital solutions to modernise our outdated infrastructure.”
