Welfare cuts will push Britain’s mental health services towards crisis
Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Iain Duncan Smith, recently proposed a further £12 billion of cuts to benefits. Making such cuts is likely to disproportionately affect the most vulnerable, including those with mental health problems and other disabilities. After all, approximately half of people who need support from the disability benefit Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) do so because of their mental health.
Suicidal patients who are under observation may be put at risk by relying on inexperienced staff and agency nurses, according to a new report issued today.
I’m waiting for a letter, and it’s terrifying. Like thousands of other people hit by the bedroom tax and other benefit cuts, I rely on a discretionary housing payment (DHP) from the council.
But these are all up for renewal in April—and the government has slashed the total amount by £40 million.
Karen Reissmann, a local nurse who is standing against Labour MP Gerald Kauffman, said, “People in Gorton are looking for change. There is a deep sense of betrayal at Labour’s failure to represent ordinary people. It cuts through every conversation, even with Labour loyalists.”
Manchester celebrities Shaun Ryder, Terry Christian, Rowetta and Claire Mooney are to lead hundreds of protesters in a rally against ‘appalling’ coalition cuts that have affected the city.
The Mancunian icons will lead crowds in what they are calling a ‘smart rally’— an emulation of the pro democracy demonstrations that took place in Hong Kong back in September 2014.
Young people’s mental health services across the UK are in dire straits.
A recent report by the Royal College of Nursing showed that government spending cuts have led to the loss of more than 3,300 mental health posts over the last four years and 1,500 fewer beds than in 2010.
A report by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) revealed worrying increases in the number of young people being treated in adult psychiatric wards.
Mental health patient admissions to A&E set to reach record levels
The number of people with a mental health condition admitted to hospital as an emergency is likely to reach its highest level ever this winter, a former health minister has warned.
An estimated 280,000 mental health patients will be admitted to hospital as an emergency in the last three months of 2014, latest analysis suggests as emergency doctors warned that overstretched A&E departments are the wrong place for people in mental distress.
Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg chaired his first Mental Health Taskforce meeting this afternoon with Ministers from across the coalition.
