Mental Health
Mental ill health may affect around a quarter of the population over any twelve month period. Yet just 11 per cent of the NHS budget is spent on mental health services. Only one in three people with mental health problems receive treatment – and even for this fortunate minority there are long waits. We commit to increasing the resources allocated to mental and emotional health year on year over the course of the next five years.
We would establish a network of Youth Wellbeing Centres for mental and physical health support for young people who are not ill enough to require advanced psychiatric treatment, yet need help. We will base these Centres in towns across Wales with good transport links, aiming to make the service as accessible as possible. In addition, we will:
- Extend support offered to children and young people in care to 25 years of age.
- Provide Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and other talking therapies more widely.
- Include the rehabilitation and treatment of those with eating disorders in our mental health provision.
- Ensure that mental and emotional health becomes woven into the core of health practice to help limit hospital admissions.
Promoting positive mental health must be addressed as an essential part of public health. We would:
- Promote emotional resilience and good mental health in schools and post-16 education providers and youth centres.
- Invest in school nursing and Child and Adolescent Mental Health services.
- Ensure counselling is available in primary care and GPs have access to resources locally to direct people appropriately.
- Explore access to mental health services as part of occupational health services and seek ways to make this support available to all employers.
- Seek all opportunities to encourage community investment in sporting facilities over and above Government funding.