ANNEX III: MENTAL HEALTH
255. We recognise that mental health is a major public
health issue and we welcome the Government's inclusion of mental
health as one of the four key priorities in Saving Lives. There
are strong links between mental illness and inequality. The Sainsbury
Centre for Mental Health has described these:
- people with mental illness suffer from a range
of inequalities and this effect is most pronounced with severe
mental illness;
- inequality and social exclusion can lead to mental
health problems or exacerbate the disabilities which arise from
mental illness;
- people with mental health problems tend to migrate
to areas of high deprivation, which also engender greater levels
of mental health problems in their populations;
- together these effects result in geographical,
social and cultural concentrations of mental health problems,
particularly in areas of economic deprivation.[345]
256. In our recent report on the Provision of
NHS Mental Health Services we highlighted:
"The importance of an adequate income, secure
accommodation, social interaction and meaningful day-time activity
occurred time and time again in both the oral and written evidence
we received, from users and carers, from professional bodies and
from research-based organisations. While it may seem self-evident
that good quality health and social care services will only be
effective if the user of those services has enough money to live
on, somewhere safe to live and something constructive to do during
the day, the truth is that the professionals delivering "mental
health" services have not traditionally seen it as their
role, or been in a position, to do a great deal about these factors."[346]
257. One of our recommendations was that the Disabled
Person's Tax Credit should be extended to those working fewer
than 16 hours per week and that the period for which benefit claims
may be suspended, rather than closed, when individuals leave benefit
to go into work, should be extended to a year.[347]
We also called for a more joined-up approach by the statutory
agencies and central government[348]
and highlighted the problems caused for the voluntary sector by
the "uncertain nature of the funding system." We recommended
that health authorities should apply the same principles to their
voluntary sector service agreements as they are required to do
in their NHS agreements: that is, that they should set up three
year rolling agreements, subject to adequate review and appraisal
arrangements.[349]
We were pleased that the DoH accepted this recommendation.[350]
As we have seen, all of these issues also arose during our current
inquiry. We have not, however, focused on mental health issues
in this report.
345
Response to the Green Paper on Public Health,
Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, May 1998. Back
346
Fourth Report of the Health Committee, Session 1999-2000, The
Provision of NHS Mental Health Services, (HC 373), para 37. Back
347
Ibid para 47. Back
348
Ibid paras 47-48. Back
349
Ibid para 104. Back
350
The Department agreed that, "wherever practicable, health
and local authorities should enter into longer term contractual
agreements and apply the same principle to their voluntary sector
service agreements as they are required to do in their NHS and
social care agreements. This will be communicated to health and
local authorities in future guidance." Government Response
to the Health Committee's report (Cm 4888). Back
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