No major British political party has ever had a leader more committed to the cause of tackling mental health discrimination than Nick Clegg.
Nick’s first ever question in Prime Minister’s Questions as party leader was about mental health services. And throughout my time as heath minister, I have always been able to rely on Nick’s unwavering support for my work: on promoting parity of esteem for mental health; on tackling unacceptable standards of crisis care and support for children and young people; and in general raising the profile of an area of health that for far too long has been disgracefully neglected.
In my speech yesterday, I highlighted the repeated failings of the last Labour government to give mental heath a fair deal. When they legislated for access and waiting time standards in physical health, Labour left out mental health. When they introduced a right to patient choice for hospital treatment, Labour left out mental health. And when they set up the Payment By Results system, to drive down waiting lists and reward treating patients, Labour left out mental health.
In April this year we addressed one of those failures. We have now extended the right of choice to include mental health, so people with mental health conditions get the same rights as those with physical health problems.
Today, Nick announced that from next April we will put right another of those injustices. For the first time ever, treatment for mental health conditions will be brought in line with other NHS services with the first ever waiting time standards.
This is a monumental step forward. Most patients accessing talking therapies will be guaranteed treatment in as little as six weeks, with a maximum wait of 18 weeks.
And for many patients experiencing their first episode of psychosis, the NHS will start to provide treatment within two weeks of referral – bringing it into line with consultations for cancer. These are patients who may be experiencing very extreme distress, and the evidence strongly suggests that early intervention can often prevent deterioration, transforming the rest of their lives,
All the evidence suggests that, with access and waiting time standards currently only in physical health, it distorts funding decisions resulting in mental health always losing out. Now for the first time, mental health will start to be treated in the same way as physical heath, driving a shift in the funding accordingly,
So thank you, Nick, for your commitment to mental health.
This is the first step in a process that will transform the course of countless people’s lives, giving those with mental health conditions a fair chance in life for the first time. The vision we have also published today will see the roll out of comprehensive access and waiting time standards across mental health. There is a very powerful moral and economic case for doing this.
And we must all remind ourselves that this simply would not be happening were it not for the Liberal Democrats in government.
* Norman Lamb is MP for North Norfolk and was Liberal Democrat Minister of State at the Department of Health until May 2015. He now chairs the Science and Technology Select Committee
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5 Comments
Dear Mr Clegg, deputy prime minister, It is all very good to hear that MH is at the forefront of your speech today and it has to be welcomed. However, and this is what seemed to be missing is that the provision for people with long term severe, and enduring MH problems seem to have been completely over looked?
It is this plethora of people who need long standing help and support to keep them well and or back into employment and proper social inclusion into every day society?
I look forward to your reply and comments on the above situation
Kirstin
I think a huge thank you goes to you and Paul Burstow.
Thank you Norman for this article. I did post a question to you in another article https://www.libdemvoice.org/nick-clegg-on-the-great-liberal-cause-to-boost-mental-health-care-i-want-this-smack-bang-on-the-front-page-of-our-next-manifesto-42798.html#comment-319465
This article answers a couple of questions I had. Namely whether the 6-18 weeks would be the time frame in which someone receives treatment or merely an assessment. I am pleased to see that it does indeed mean treatment.
I do have some other questions and concerns that I would really appreciate if you could answer.
At present GP’s are referring some patients who are presenting with depressive disorders to private providers like Mind Body and Soul in my home town of Norwich. They are only given 8 sessions of therapy which is funded by the NHS, then if they want more they are asked to pay between £30-45 a session.
This is simply not on in my opinion, what happened to the NHS being free at the point of use? It can not be right that vulnerable people who are already living on the breadline be expected to fund their own treatment once they had exhausted limited NHS funding. We would never do that to Cancer patients and nor should we to those suffering from mental health.
Those that are fortunate enough to be referred to the mental health access team within the NHS itself and are given a course of CBT or CAT therapy are only offered up to 12 sessions. There is this mentality within the NHS that one cap fits all approach to therapy. In my experience this simply does not work. People are individuals with different complex needs and causes of depressive disorders and the therapy needs an individual approach.
Many very vulnerable people with complex disorders, especially those who have experienced severe traumatic events, require time in order to build up a sense of trust with the therapist, the treatment plan and indeed they need to build up trust in themselves, they need to know that they will be able to cope with the therapy which can sometime be very harrowing indeed as I am sure you would know from talking to many people who have gone through the process.
One of the most important aspects I feel for therapy to be successful, is that the patient needs to feel that no matter what the therapy brings up for them, the support will be there for as long as it is needed.
One of the biggest barriers I found to therapy was the constant fear of having therapy taken away before I felt ready or able to do so. Because of the limited number of sessions that are offered, I personally felt really pressured to reveal traumatic details before I felt ready, able or safe to do so. I was constantly reminded at every session, how many sessions I had left. For me I found this extremely stressful and feeling like a complete failure as I was not progressing at the speed at which was expected from me, I am sure many others would have felt the same.
Some of the language we heard today from conference was encouraging.
I also noted from Nick Clegg’s speech today when he said “And in Government again the Liberal Democrats will commit to completing this overhaul of our mental health services – ending the discrimination against mental health for good. And while I know not everyone in the party is going to agree, I can tell you now: I want this smack bang on the front page of our next manifesto.”
Now you have confirmed to us in your article that the changes announced today to mental health access have been decided by this coalition government and will come into effect in April. Could you please give us a little more detail by what Nick Clegg meant when he said he wants this on the front page of the Liberal Democrat Manifesto? What other changes to Mental health access will Liberal democrats commit to if they are elected again in 2015?
This really matters to me and many hundreds of thousands of people up and down the country who are affected by this disease.
I am still an undecided voter for the 2015 election and could be persuaded to vote Liberal democrat again if I knew there was going to be serious commitment from the Liberal democrats on this issue. I live in the Liberal Democrat / Labour marginal seat of Norwich where Liberal Democrats have a majority of just over 300 people as I am sure you know.
The mental health services in Norwich are horrendous.
I actually got a letter from central Norfolk Adult Community Services . A Survey commissioned by the care quality commission found that performance was “worse than expected” As a patient I was invited to a public meeting in late October at Hellesdon Hospital. My health conditions prevent me from participating in a public event like that as I would find it far to difficult, However I am sending in written submissions of my own experiences within the Norfolk and Suffolk foundation trust.
People like me desperately need changes and we need a political party that will represent us in Government and give us a voice, we have been overlooked by society for far to long.
Kind Regards
Matt
I would like to say what a utter discrace Leicestershire mental health team are. My boyfriend has just been discharged by his team after doing nothing for him. Despite him being a self harmer they have left him.. Well done!!! Mental health teams are there for a reason I would like to make this known to everyone that I’m dussgusted how my partner was treated and I’m going to fight until we have good and proper help for mental health
The plan to make Norman into Nick’s anointed successor has begun.