Summary document - Whole-person care: from
rhetoric to reality (Achieving parity between mental and physical
health)
In our society mental health does not receive the same attention as
physical health. People with mental health problems frequently
experience stigma and discrimination, not only in the wider
community but also from services. This is exemplified in part by
lower treatment rates for mental health conditions and an
underfunding of mental healthcare relative to the scale and impact
of mental health problems.
There is an ambition for the NHS to
put mental health on a par with physical health. However, the
concept of parity in this context is not always well understood. In
this report, an expert working group defines ‘parity of
esteem’ in detail, and examines why parity between mental and
physical health does not currently exist and how it might be
achieved in practice.
Contents
- Foreword
- Authors and acknowledgements
- Membership of the parity of esteem
working group
- Key recommendations
- Introduction
- Terms of reference and
methodology
- Definition and vision for parity of
esteem
- The funding gap: disparity in funding
for mental health
- The treatment gap: disparity in
access to treatment for mental health problems
- NHS Outcomes Framework Domain 1:
Preventing people from dying prematurely
- NHS Outcomes Framework Domain 2:
Enhancing quality of life for people with long-term
- conditions
- NHS Outcomes Framework Domain 3:
Helping people to recover from episodes of ill health
- or following injury
- NHS Outcomes Framework Domain 4:
Ensuring that people have a positive experience of
- care
- NHS Outcomes Framework Domain 5:
Treating and caring for people in a safe environment
- and protecting them from avoidable
harm
- A life-course approach: early
intervention, children and young people and older people
- Measurement and monitoring of parity:
data, research, audit and inspection
- A cross-government approach to
parity
- Annexe A1. Lester UK Adaptation:
Positive Cardiometabolic Health Resource
- Annexe A2. Programme for implementing
the Lester UK Adaptation
- Annexe B. Summary of recommendataions
for parity
- Annexe C. Parity commitments from
working group member organisations, Royal Colleges
- and others
- References