Share of NHS spending on mental health to fall next year, says Streeting

31 comments

1. Oh great, get mentally ill people back into work by cutting both benefits and mental health services

   Im sure that’ll turn out well

2. “We’re going to cut benefits for mental health conditions”

   “So you’ll be putting that money into improved mental health services to help them back into work, right?”

   “….”

   “Right?”

3. Or, in other words, absolute spending on mental health is still increasing?

   I have a conjecture for reddit: Blue Labour, for all their flaws, are still better for us than the alternatives, otherwise the press would not be railling so hard against them.

4. I guess the average wait of 12 weeks before recieving any counselling was too quick.

5. When are people going to realise the people in government despise you if you have mental health problems and are very old school in their views about it. They are the ones who many of us would have had to hide our mental health back in the early 2000s because it was taboo to talk about and you’d be seen as a nutter and unstable. They smile and say the are progressive but they think we are nutters who need to fade away quietly.

6. Mental health needs more money, not less, and couple that with the slash to disability benefits, especially for mental health, and you have a disaster waiting to happen.

   I honestly believe this whole idiotic bunch of muppets should see a health care professional as soon as possible because every decision they make is insane.

7. I suppose we’re dropping all the campaigns encouraging anyone suffering to speak out about it too. Doesn’t feel like we are a country where it’s okay to speak up anymore and I bet a lot of people are going to start bottling it all up again at this rate, especially men who still mostly suffer in silence.

8. Feels like we’re going backwards in mental health understanding. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s taken off the disability law completely soon.

9. Please can someone explain why we don’t increase taxes for those affluent enough to notice it less, rather than cut services that are relied upon by everyone?

10. Nothing like an increasingly depressed underpaid workforce to kickstart a stuttering economy…

11. Just when it is needed most.

    This government is becoming increasingly nasty at a level unheard of even from our Tory friends.

12. The state of mental health services is frightening as it is. This isn’t encouraging news.

13. *A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This Government is increasing investment in mental health care by an extra £320 million in real terms, meeting the Mental Health Investment Standard.

    “This includes funding to recruit 8,500 staff across mental health services, expanding mental health support in schools and investing in new mental health crisis centres – helping deliver our Plan for Change to ensure everyone can access the care they need.”*

    At the bottom of the article, you see that mental health spending is going up by £300m in real terms.

14. The amount of mentally ill I deal with on a monthly basis at hospital taking up beds for social reasons is clearly going to increase then

15. If you’ve commented without reading the article, I’m sorry but you are part of the problem.

16. So firstly, massively misleading headline:

    >In a written ministerial statement published on Thursday, [Health Secretary](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/health-secretary) [Wes Streeting](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/wes-streeting) confirmed mental health spending as a share of baseline NHS spending would fall by 0.07% to 8.71% in 2025-26.

    >Mr Streeting’s statement said the “proportion of spend is almost exactly the same as it was last year” and the 0.07% difference is because of “significant investment in other areas of healthcare”.

    Secondly, genuinely shocked that 8.71% of baseline NHS spending is on mental health. Both of their staff members dedicated to mental health must be raking it in…

    That number could have been <1% and I wouldn’t have been remotely surprised. There is something of a positive I guess in that if we are spending that much for the square root of fuck all, there is a genuine possibility of reform delivering much better care and outcomes without needing too much extra spending.

    (Side note: hating more and more with time that Farage’s orange turd tribute act is steadily ruining the word “reform”)

17. This isn’t just going to kill the mentally ill, but it’ll also kill people who are unfortunate enough to encounter a mentally ill individual who should be getting supported with medication and treatment but has a attack because nothing is being done

18. Im sure they’ll be fine once they’re back in a job and having a mental breakdown with no hope of receiving any sort of support, I’m sure the hospital I work in won’t see a strange but unexplainable increase in patient admissions

19. FFS.

    I’m a social worker in a mental health team. Our area has 204 patients unallocated because of staffing and funding issues. The mental health nurses in our team are running with caseloads of 40 to 50 patients and obviously just end up fire fighting and dealing with emergencies.

    Also the 204 is not including anyone sat on a waiting list for autism or ADHD assessment. In our area then waiting lists are four to five years long.

    The lack of resources is profound and has a direct impact on patient care.

20. The UK isn’t a good place to be a Psychology graduate 

21. Absolutely vile person. Absolutely vile government.

22. Oh thank God everyone is doing better mentally….. That’s what this means right?

    *Insert Anakin meme *

23. I like how this is buried at the bottom of the article:

    >A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This Government is increasing investment in mental health care by an extra £320 million in real terms, meeting the Mental Health Investment Standard.

    The % of the total budget spent on mental health has dropped 0.07% because of spending increases in other areas, despite the £320 million uplift. If you only read the headline you are getting incredibly mislead

24. Having been unemployed for a year now, I can tell you that there are loads of jobs out there. But just because I want a job doesnt mean I’ll be given one?

    I applied for McDonalds, they said no. likely because my CV is all graphic design work and they would expect me to jump ship whenever I could.

    I applied for a coffee shop, they said no because even tho I have barista experience they wanted me to be able to make their coffees they way they make them on the spot with no guidance.

    If you want people to work, talk to employers. Who are increasingly **unappeasable** and expect every hire to be a magic unicorn who can do every thing without any training and then complain that no one wants to work.

    Cutting benefits and health care as some kind of “push” to get people working is insane because loads of people DO WANT TO WORK>

25. So there’s too many people on PIP for mental health issues but they want to cut mental healthcare funding? Baffling logic.

26. If they want fewer mental health issues they should make this country a less miserable and depressing place to live.

    I’ve lived with CPTSD and Psychosis my whole life, and while it’s always been difficult to get doctors to listen, in recent years it’s gotten worse and worse.. to the point I recently moved towns and GPs and they’ve LOST my medical records and now my new GP has nothing to go on when seeing me. Its a farce.

    But sure, let’s cut it even more. That’ll help the mentally ill back to work in all the non existent jobs there are for us. They’re absolutely chomping at the bit to hire someone that can disassociate for 24 hours at a time or black out and turn violent under stress.

    But according to some I’m living the easy life.

27. The social return on investment must be high for these services?!

28. Still waiting 24 months for my son’s autism diagnosis. What’s another 2 years?

29. Government “too many people are on disability because of mental health issues”

    Also government “mental healthcare funding is not a priority”

30. The wait times are already so bad. I don’t know why failing is in quotes. They absolutely are failing people.

31. The problem is that the whole system is under so much pressure so that NHS workers are more in need of mental health support than anyone. UK healthcare professionals are 24% more likely to die by suicide than the general population. It’s like asking for help putting on your oxygen mask from someone who doesn’t have their own oxygen mask on and is also halfway out of the plane and hanging onto the fuselage by their fingertips.

    There’s a scene in the show This is Going to Hurt where the doctor wants to get psych support for a girl who (medical horror warning) >!has just attempted DIY labiaplasty!<. But the psych doctor on duty is so stressed out that she looks like she’s on the verge of a mental breakdown herself, and the cases she’s dealing with are so extreme that a simple case of self-mutilation doesn’t qualify as a priority.

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