Category Archives: mental health
Minister calls for new mental health service targets
The introduction of hospital-style treatment targets would help address the “institutional bias” against mental health services, a health minister said.
Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk. Picture: Denise Bradley
Adam Gretton Health correspondent Saturday, November 2, 2013
7:00 AM
The introduction of hospital-style treatment targets would help address the “institutional bias” against mental health services, a health minister said.
Norman Lamb said he was determined to address the imbalance between physical health and mental health by bringing in new targets by the time of the next general election.
The North Norfolk MP and health minister yesterday said that hospitals had targets to treat patients needing non-emergency surgery within 18 weeks. However there were no similar targets or a payment by results system for mental health trusts.
Mr Lamb said that the introduction of targets would help to focus more NHS commissioner funding towards mental health services and it was “totally frustrating” how long it was taking to change things.
England’s mental health services ‘in crisis’
The mental health service in England is in crisis and unsafe, says one of the country’s leading psychiatrists.
Dr Martin Baggaley, medical director of the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, spoke out as an investigation by BBC News and Community Care magazine reveals more than 1,500 mental health beds have closed in recent years.Many trusts have all their beds filled.
Care Minister Norman Lamb said the current situation was “unacceptable” and provision must improve.
While there was a drive to treat more people in the community, he said beds must be available when patients needed them.
System ‘inefficient, unsafe’
Debt and mental health problems
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 30 Sep 2013 – 1:00 PDT
New research, led by the University of Southampton, has shown that people in debt are three times more likely to have a mental health problem than those not in debt.
There is currently around £156 billion in unsecured debt such as credit cards in the UK, of which the average family owes more than £11,000. Levels of debt have increased in recent years due to the economic recession and are predicted to increase further.
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