The Government has provided £500 million for mental health services to be expanded as part of the Mental Health Recovery Action Plan, which aims to respond to the impact of the pandemic on people's mental health, specifically targeting groups that have been most impacted including those with severe mental illness, young people, and frontline staff.
Under the plan, NHS talking therapies (IAPT services), which offer confidential treatment of conditions such as anxiety, depression and PTSD, will expand, helping 1.6 million people to access services in 2021/22, backed by an additional £38 million. Additional therapists will also be trained to support those with more complex mental health needs as a result of the pandemic.
People living with severe mental illness will also benefit from enhanced mental services in communities, backed by £58 million for better, joined-up support between primary and secondary care, including specialist mental health staff embedded in primary care.
The funding will also accelerate the expansion and transformation of community mental health services, enabling people with severe mental illnesses to access psychological therapies, improved physical health care, employment support, personalised and trauma-informed care, medicines management and support for self-harm.
Throughout the pandemic, mental health services have remained open, often adapting to provide support via digital services. The Recovery Action Plan commits to capitalise on this transformation of services, including a £30 million commitment from NHSX to support mental health trusts to embed digital and remote working into service delivery.
To support mental health services in the longer term, £111 million will be invested to train the workforce of the future, which will ensure staff are in place to support two million more people access NHS mental health care and treatment by 2023/24.
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