HFMA 2018: More funding needed for community mental health services

Claire Murdoch (pictured), NHS England national mental health director and Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust chief executive, said boosting community mental healthcare would relieve some of the pressure on acute services.

‘We must invest more in community-based mental health services, particularly 24/7 intensive home care and treatment services. If we don't we will be stuck in a cycle of not having enough acute beds,’ she said.

‘Looking forward we need to focus on better crisis services with more ways to access them.’

Former health minister Norman Lamb told the conference that more patients should be cared for in the community and not in institutions, where patients were often locked up unnecessarily. Patients, particularly children, should not be sent out of area for inpatient care that could last weeks, making it more difficult to re-establish their friendships and social networks when they got home, the Liberal Democrat MP added.

‘I will continue to campaign for more money [for mental healthcare], but let’s also have a focused, evidence-based look at how money is being spent. We must challenge ourselves if we are still providing institutional care that can breach human rights, uses inappropriate and unnecessary force and sends people out of area, which increases the risk of suicide when they are discharged,’ Mr Lamb said.

Ms Murdoch insisted progress had been made under the Five-year forward view, for example in perinatal specialist services, more beds for children and teenagers and a 6% reduction in suicide (with an ambition to reduce it by 10% by 2021). However, it was important not to become complacent.

‘I think it’s hard to land these in the consciousness as we started from a low base. We have a way to go before we tackle the unmet treatment gap,’ she said.