>>Paul Farmer: This is one of the largest consultations that we’ve ever seen between
the NHS and a wider public asking a question, what do you really want to see from mental
health services?
Twenty thousand people responding in a very short period of time and giving us some very
clear priorities.
One of our key themes is around access and people told us loud and clear that they want
to get access to evidence based treatments.
What we’re proposing is a significant expansion of those nice, evidence-based treatments that
should be available to as many people as possible over the course of the next five years.
>>Kathy: The fact that this place is on the high street and it doesn’t say “We are
here for people with mental illness” , it’s not emblazoned across the front of the shop,
that makes a huge difference.
>>Paul Farmer: One of the central themes of this report is the integration of our physical
health and our mental health, regardless of whether we’re starting with a physical health
problem or with a mental health problem. For example, one of the things we’ve been looking
at is the idea of better access for people with severe mental illness to physical health
treatment like smoking cessation programmes, and equally we’ve discovered that people
with long term physical conditions such as diabetes, can really improve if they can get
better access to psychological therapies.
>>Dr Anne Doherty: We know from the research that’s been done, people with diabetes are
twice as likely to suffer from depression as people who don’t have diabetes, and conversely,
people who have depression are more likely to develop diabetes than people who don’t
have depression.
>>Paul Farmer: Mental health crisis don’t happen between nine and five Monday to Friday
and sadly for far too many people they find themselves in a police cell because there
isn’t the availability of health-based support.
Call Taker: Hi it’s Jason at the First Response Service
>>Paul Farmer: We want to see crisis care
available 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
>>Call Taker: That’ll be today. I’ll try
to get someone out in the next hour or so.
>>Paul Farmer: So that when somebody is at the worst possible point, they can get speedy
access to the right kind of help and support they need.
One of the great strengths about mental health
services is when people with their own experience, families and professionals, work together
towards a common aim. And what we want to do is put that idea of co-production right
at the heart of all aspects of mental health service delivery.
That means more transparency, better outcomes
and more personalization for the individuals.
>>Aiden: If this place wasn’t here, I probably
wouldn’t be around at all I don’t think.
>>Dr Andy Whitfield: The evidence that the café works is based on the recognised reduction
in A&E attendance for mental health crisis, and a 33 per cent reduction in acute hospital
admissions for mental health crisis – that equates to a cost saving of £500,000 a year.
The data just shows how effective it is.
>>Paul Farmer: Reports in the past haven’t
really focused on mental health prevention. This is the first time prevention is right
at the heart of a major policy document about mental health.
>>Patient: Hello there.
>>Nurse: How you doing today?
>>Patient: I’m fine.
>>Nurse: Good – I’m just going to take
your blood pressure.
>>Dolly Sud: People with severe mental illness will die possibly up to 20 years earlier than
people without a mental health diagnosis.
>>Nurse: It might squeeze a little bit
>>Dolly Sud: It’s a huge problem. We know it’s a huge problem. So what we’re trying
to do is bridge that gap so their physical health gets as much attention as their mental
health.
>>Nurse: That’s absolutely fine.
That’s everything. Thank you
>>Dolly Sud: Last year, those patients who were on our in-patient wards that were picked
up through this national performance target which is otherwise known as a CQUIN, every
single patient almost, 97 per cent, got all the relevant screening and received interventions
appropriate to which ones were flagged up.
>>Paul Farmer: Running right the way through this report is a relentless focus on inequalities.
There are far too many parts of our society who get a raw deal for their own mental health.
People from particular black and ethnic minority communities, LGBT communities, older people
and younger people often don’t get the right kind of help and support they need. So we’ve
hard-wired the idea of a particular focus on inequalities, including better transparency
and information and better training and support for professionals to make sure that they’re
able to produce and create responsive services.
This report clearly costs out the additional investment required to provide the kind of
service everybody wants to see for people with mental health problems. And I think that
has to come from two sources, it has to come partly from the spending review, but secondly
we’ve also been able to show that savings within the NHS can provide better access to
support for people with mental health problems.
There is a clear road map that says this is the direction of travel we need to go in in
order to change the experience of people with mental health problems of NHS mental health
services.
Today is the day when that work starts for real in delivering and implementing those
ambitions. People with mental health problems deserve that support now.