News Release, 19 June 2006
The NHS should invest in the treatment that its own advisory body has already recommended it provides to people with three of the most common mental health conditions, the leaders of four major national charities said today.
Welcoming a report from the London School of Economics calling for National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance on depression, anxiety and schizophrenia to be implemented in full, the chief executives of Mind, Rethink, the Mental Health Foundation and the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health issued a joint statement today:
"Access to evidence-based talking therapies for those who need them should be as big a priority for the NHS as any other proven and cost-effective treatment.
"NICE guidance has approved CBT for depression, some forms of anxiety and for schizophrenia on seven occasions yet it is still scarce and subject to waiting times that would be unacceptable for any other form of specialist treatment on the NHS.
"We call upon the NHS to implement NICE guidance on mental health and to invest urgently in sufficient capacity to offer people the treatment they need in a timely manner and to high quality standards.
"The Government has taken a first step to this through its Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme. It should now take the next steps by requiring PCTs to implement existing NICE guidance and publishing waiting times data for psychological therapies. Only then will people with mental health problems have any kind of equality with everyone else in the NHS."
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Notes to editors
For further information and interview requests contact please contact the Press Office on 020 7803 1128 / 1130 or email the press office
The Mental Health Foundation is the leading UK charity working to improve services for both people with mental health problems and people with learning disabilities. It is the only charity to fund and work with both service users and providers and plays an important role in funding research and new approaches to prevention, treatment and care. The Foundation’s work includes allocating grants for research and community projects; contributing to the public debate; educating policy makers and healthcare professionals and striving to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness.
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