Category Archives: mental health

Big Lottery Fund gives £13m to 55 mental health charities

August 14, 2012   Carers, mental health, stigma

The money will help address the stigma that surrounds mental health and support people with their treatment, according to Nat Sloane, chair of Big Lottery Fund England

By David Ainsworth, Third Sector Online, 14 August 2012

Nat Sloane

The Big Lottery Fund has awarded £13m through its Reaching Communities programme to 55 charities in England to support people with mental health issues, along with their carers and families.

Awards ranged from just under £500,000 to the Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Outreach Team for a domestic violence advice service, down to about £38,000 to Action for Achievement for a community arts programme in Liverpool.

The £130m Reaching Communities programme offers grants of between £10,000 and £500,000 to organisations in England that help to build stronger communities and help people in need.

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Mental health strategy launched in Scotland

August 13, 2012   Carers, mental health, Scotland

A strategy which aims to improve people’s mental health and well-being has been launched in Scotland.

13 August, 2012 | By The Press Association

 

The issue is one of the top public health challenges in Europe, according to public health minister Michael Matheson.

The Scottish government has 36 commitments in its new Mental Health Strategy for Scotland: 2012-2015.

Mr Matheson said: “In Scotland we are proud of what we have already achieved in promoting rights and recovery, addressing stigma and improving outcomes for people who use services and their carers, ensuring people receive more effective quality care and treatment, more quickly than ever before.

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Mental health spending falls for first time in 10 years

August 7, 2012   Carers, Depression, mental health, ukcuts

Total government expenditure on services down by £150m, the first reduction since 2001, says Department of Health report

 

 

More than 6 million Britons are estimated to sufer from depression each year.

Spending in real terms on mental health has declined for the first time in a decade, a report for the Department of Health has found.

Although one of the coalition’s first big policy announcements was to declare that mental health ought to have “parity with physical health in the NHS”, investment in mental health for working-age adults dropped by 1%, once inflation is taken into account, to £6.63bn. For the elderly the recorded fall in real terms spending was 3.1% to £2.83bn.

In total, spending on mental health services in England dropped by £150m, the first fall since 2001. However this drop comes after a decade of rising investment: in 2001 just £4.1bn was spent on working-age adults mental health.

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