Councils spend less than 1.5% on mental health,charity finds (England)

Less than 1.5% of English local authorities’ public health budget is spent on preventing mental health problems, with some councils spending nothing, research by the charity Mind has found.

Local authorities have allocated less than £40m to mental health in 2014-15, as opposed to £108m on obesity, £160m on smoking and £671m on sexual health.

Councils took over responsibility for preventing physical and mental health problems in their communities from primary care trusts in 2013 but some did not even know they were responsible for the latter, according to Mind.

Chief executive Paul Farmer said: “Mind’s findings show that while local authorities are happy to spend on preventing physical health problems, their equivalent spending on mental health is unacceptably low.

“We need to invest in everyone’s mental health, particularly for people who are more likely to become unwell such as younger people, pregnant women, people who are isolated, or those living with a long-term physical health problem.”

Through freedom of information requests, Mind found that the average planned spend on mental health by local authorities was 1.36%, a figure so low that it is lumped in with “miscellaneous public health services” in the overall budget estimate for the authorities.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/28/mind-charity-mental-health-council-spending-less-than-1-point-5-per-cent

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