Share of NHS spending on mental health to fall next year, says Streeting

Oh great, get mentally ill people back into work by cutting both benefits and mental health services

Im sure that’ll turn out well

Or, in other words, absolute spending on mental health is still increasing?

I have a conjecture for reddit: Blue Labour, for all their flaws, are still better for us than the alternatives, otherwise the press would not be railling so hard against them.

When are people going to realise the people in government despise you if you have mental health problems and are very old school in their views about it. They are the ones who many of us would have had to hide our mental health back in the early 2000s because it was taboo to talk about and you’d be seen as a nutter and unstable. They smile and say the are progressive but they think we are nutters who need to fade away quietly.

I suppose we’re dropping all the campaigns encouraging anyone suffering to speak out about it too. Doesn’t feel like we are a country where it’s okay to speak up anymore and I bet a lot of people are going to start bottling it all up again at this rate, especially men who still mostly suffer in silence.

Please can someone explain why we don’t increase taxes for those affluent enough to notice it less, rather than cut services that are relied upon by everyone?

Just when it is needed most.

This government is becoming increasingly nasty at a level unheard of even from our Tory friends.

I guess instead of a 6 week cbt course for everything it’s going to be 3 weeks instead…

The amount of mentally ill I deal with on a monthly basis at hospital taking up beds for social reasons is clearly going to increase then

This is so depressing. I’ve been through the process with the NHS for MH problems and it was dire. It’s starved of funding, so let’s cut it more eh? I’m sure nobody will die…

So firstly, massively misleading headline:

>In a written ministerial statement published on Thursday, [Health Secretary](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/health-secretary) [Wes Streeting](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/wes-streeting) confirmed mental health spending as a share of baseline NHS spending would fall by 0.07% to 8.71% in 2025-26.

>Mr Streeting’s statement said the “proportion of spend is almost exactly the same as it was last year” and the 0.07% difference is because of “significant investment in other areas of healthcare”.

Secondly, genuinely shocked that 8.71% of baseline NHS spending is on mental health. Both of their staff members dedicated to mental health must be raking it in…

That number could have been <1% and I wouldn’t have been remotely surprised. There is something of a positive I guess in that if we are spending that much for the square root of fuck all, there is a genuine possibility of reform delivering much better care and outcomes without needing too much extra spending.

(Side note: hating more and more with time that Farage’s orange turd tribute act is steadily ruining the word “reform”)

Im sure they’ll be fine once they’re back in a job and having a mental breakdown with no hope of receiving any sort of support, I’m sure the hospital I work in won’t see a strange but unexplainable increase in patient admissions

FFS.

I’m a social worker in a mental health team. Our area has 204 patients unallocated because of staffing and funding issues. The mental health nurses in our team are running with caseloads of 40 to 50 patients and obviously just end up fire fighting and dealing with emergencies.

Also the 204 is not including anyone sat on a waiting list for autism or ADHD assessment. In our area then waiting lists are four to five years long.

The lack of resources is profound and has a direct impact on patient care.

Absolutely vile person. Absolutely vile government.

I like how this is buried at the bottom of the article:

>A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This Government is increasing investment in mental health care by an extra £320 million in real terms, meeting the Mental Health Investment Standard.

The % of the total budget spent on mental health has dropped 0.07% because of spending increases in other areas, despite the £320 million uplift. If you only read the headline you are getting incredibly mislead

Who believes anything that Wes “Private Healthcare Advocate” Streeting says?

If they want fewer mental health issues they should make this country a less miserable and depressing place to live.

I’ve lived with CPTSD and Psychosis my whole life, and while it’s always been difficult to get doctors to listen, in recent years it’s gotten worse and worse.. to the point I recently moved towns and GPs and they’ve LOST my medical records and now my new GP has nothing to go on when seeing me. Its a farce.

But sure, let’s cut it even more. That’ll help the mentally ill back to work in all the non existent jobs there are for us. They’re absolutely chomping at the bit to hire someone that can disassociate for 24 hours at a time or black out and turn violent under stress.

But according to some I’m living the easy life.

The social return on investment must be high for these services?!

Government “too many people are on disability because of mental health issues”

Also government “mental healthcare funding is not a priority”