Clegg vows to tackle ‘shocking indifference’ to mental health funding

An extra £2.25 billion will be pumped into mental health services in England by 2020 under the Liberal Democrats to tackle “shocking indifference” to the issue, Nick Clegg said.

The Deputy Prime Minister said the money, which comes on top of the £1.25 billion announced in the coalition Government’s last budget, will help address historic problems of underfunding of mental health issues in the NHS.

The Liberal Democrats’ Manifesto for the Mind would include new waiting time targets and funding for mothers coping with post-natal depression.

Mr Clegg said: “I hope by the end of the next parliament people really will see a major difference. But it’s a journey which we have got to keep going on because it’s having to reverse decades of underinvestment and decades of something close to institutionalised indifference if not discrimination against mental health in the NHS.”

The Liberal Democrat leader said his interest in the issue stemmed from his work as a constituency MP in Sheffield Hallam.

“I remember particularly one case that had a really searing impact on me,” he said.

“I had a lovely couple – I still see them from time to time in Sheffield – who were in tears in my constituency office because they had a daughter who had an eating disorder, anorexia, and she had finally been given good, effective treatment and then she turned 18 and once you turn 18 you are taken out of children and adolescent mental health services and put into adult mental health services.

“She was just abandoned. She had been making this painstaking recovery and suddenly she was back in a hospital bed and back to square one and her parents were in a state of complete despair.

“I started looking into it and I just lifted a lid on the shocking indifference across society for something that affects so many people.

“On average the number of children who have mental health problems at school age is the equivalent of three children in every class.

“It’s astonishing in this day and age it affects one in four of our fellow citizens and I can’t imagine anything else on that scale, neglected for that length of time, going unaddressed.”

Mr Clegg said the girl with anorexia recovered and the system had been changed so there was no longer an “absolute cliff edge” when people move from children’s services to adult care.

The funding, which will also involve extra money under the Barnett Formula for the devolved nations, would mean an extra £250 million per year in 2016/17 and 2017/18, rising to £500 million a year after that point.

Some £250m over five years will be spent on services for pregnant women and mothers dealing with depression.

This would include eight new mother and baby units providing inpatient care and 40 new community services helping new mothers adjust to life at home with a new born.

New waiting time standards will be introduced for people in crisis and for conditions like bipolar disorder so that those who are ill know how long they have to wait.

The funding would also mean hundreds of thousands more people will get access to talking therapies for anxiety and depression.

A commitment to boost funding for health, with a particular focus on mental health, will be on the front page of the Lib Dem election manifesto, indicating it will be a key priority in any coalition talks after the General Election.

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Picture (c) Steve Parsons/PA Wire. Nick Clegg during a visit to Solihull Mind, where he met staff and service users.