An excellent speech by Ed Miliband today at the Royal College of Pyschiatrists setting out what UNISON members and stewards working in mental health service have known for many years - that there is a crisis of under-funding with demand for services massively outstripping capacity - and you can't get a quart out of a pint bottle:
'We have to confront the unspoken discriminations too. Like the vast inequalities in funding for research. Like the lack of training in mental health of many NHS staff – whether in GP surgeries, outpatient clinics or A&E. Eight out of ten primary care professionals say they need more training in mental health than they have. Like the lack of understanding of mental health that seems to characterise parts of the social security system. And like the willingness of governments to make the first and deepest cuts in services for mental health. 'Indeed, it is a very troubling sign that for the first time in a decade we have seen a cut in total spending on mental health. A reduction of £150million, including cuts in crisis services and out-reach programmes':
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2012/10/ed-milibands-speech-mental-health-full-text
