The Royal College of Psychiatrists welcomes the Government’s announcement to develop a new 10-year mental health and wellbeing plan.
Professor Subodh Dave, Dean at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said:
“We welcome the opportunity to work with Government to develop a new 10-year plan to reduce and prevent mental illness.
“A new society-wide plan offers an opportunity to set out how we can all work together to tackle the root causes of mental illness including inequality, barriers to treatment, discrimination, racism and poor physical health. But it also means doing much more to ensure everyone has access to quality education, employment, health care and housing which all impact mental health. This work cannot be taken forward in earnest without a fully resourced plan, with concrete commitments from across government.
“While action on prevention and promotion are welcome, the Government must also address the crisis in mental health services. Demand on services has exploded since the start of the pandemic, and people with mental illnesses are being failed by unacceptably long waiting times. Ensuring mental health services have the resources and staffing to meet future demand is essential to delivering the Government's commitment to put mental and physical health on equal footing.”
Many mental health conditions are preventable with early intervention and improved policy responses. One in three cases of mental illness in adults, for example, is attributed to childhood abuse, bullying and maltreatment.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists recently launched the Public Mental Health Implementation Centre to improve awareness and adoption of evidence-based programmes to prevent mental illness and improve resilience and wellbeing following the pandemic. Find more information about the Centre.
For further information, please contact:
- Email: press@rcpsych.ac.uk
- Twitter: @rcpsych
- Out-of-hours contact number: 07860 755896