The Tories are underfunding mental health services while bragging about their generosity – no wonder they have lost public trust.

The overall economic and social costs of poor mental health for our society are estimated at more than £ 100 billion a year.

In this context, a £ 70,000 bill is, of course, a drop of water in the ocean. That was the cost for the Metropolitan Police to answer nearly 9,000 emergency calls from people with Alzheimer's in 2017.

But the fact that all these calls come from only five people helps to force a larger truth: when mental health services are underfunded by the government, the cost is invariably indicated elsewhere.

This translates into increased demand from the police, courts, prisons and mainstream health services. It also appears in restless sleep.

And then there are the intangible costs. Things like interruptions in education, family breakdowns, job losses, distorted careers and of course the personal anguish of the sufferers and their loved ones.

That's how you reach 100 billion pounds, about 5% of UK GDP.

The government spent about £ 12 billion on mental health services in England in 2017-18, about one-tenth of the total health budget.

This may sound like a lot, but in reality, ministers have actually underfunded mental health services, as have most other public services, in the age of austerity.

In 2012, ministers committed to establishing "parity of appreciation" between physical and mental health, essentially a promise that people with mental health problems would have the same access to care and treatment as those who have mental health problems. suffering from physical diseases.

Research conducted by the King's Fund think-tank has shown that over the next three years, nearly half of the 60 NHS mental health trusts have seen their budgets dwindle, while most high-trusts have experienced an increase.

Most mental health trusts improved in 2016-17, but evidence suggests that their level of funding in real terms remains below the level seen before 2012.

And service requests have increased over this period, along with the increase in population.

Data on total spending on mental health over time is unreliable for a variety of technical reasons, but it is fairly clear that, per person and adjusted for inflation, funding will have dwindled under the curators. and the coalition.

If you spend less on a service, or if you keep funding expenses below demand, the quality and availability of the service will suffer. In addition, if these services involve the treatment of people with mental health problems, there will likely be social wrongs. The costs will simply appear elsewhere. The economy will prove to be wrong.

The ministers seem to have denied this simple fact.

On World Mental Health Day in 2017, former Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, touted to MPs that there were "30,000 more mental health professionals than when my government is entered into office ".

It soon became apparent that the reality was an increase of about 700 people and Hunt had to correct the official parliamentary record. Moreover, this slight increase is due to an expansion of psychotherapists. The number of mental health nurses is less than 5,000.

There are approximately 215,000 specialized mental health posts in England, of which about 20,000 are currently staffed by temporary staff. A survey of mental health staff last year revealed a shortage of staff and an increase in violent incidents. And a recent report from the regulator of the Care Quality Commission this year showed that many young people have particular difficulty accessing treatment.

Did the ministers finally understand that the system fails? Philip Hammond announced in the budget earlier this month that funding would increase as a share of total NHS spending over the next five years and that a "mental health crisis service" would be created.

Yet the NHS clinical commissioners have asked for any additional funding to be reserved, which raises fears that any additional money will be exchanged to meet other health expenditure demands and that "parity of appreciation" remains more a slogan than a reality.

Given the recent shameful history of mental health treatment – underfunding, broken promises, political denial – who can blame them?

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