Tag: Luciana Berger

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the number of people who will spend Christmas alone; and what assessment he has made of the effect of loneliness at that time of year on mental health needs.

Alistair Burt

The Department does not carry out an assessment of the number of people who will spend Christmas alone.

Loneliness can have a significant impact on someone’s mental health. It can contribute to mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression. It can also have a negative impact on a person’s general health. The Campaign to End Loneliness report Loneliness: the State We’re In (2012) identified research which shows that loneliness has an effect on mortality that is similar in size to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, is worse for us than obesity, and is also associated with conditions such as cardiovascular disease.

The Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework does have a measure which shows the percentage of local authority funded adult social care users and carers who have as much social contact as they would like. For 2014/15, it showed that 45% of service users and 39% of carers reported having as much contact as they would like.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2015 to Question 20084, if he will make it his policy to collect data concerning the number of prescriptions for anti-depressants that are dispensed by the NHS for patients aged under 18.

Alistair Burt

Currently, information is not available centrally concerning the age of patients prescribed and dispensed specific medicines. However, the NHS Business Services Authority is in the process of developing this capability so that, as a minimum, information can be provided from a sample of prescription items.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 11 January 2016, whether the £247 million of investment announced for liaison mental health services in emergency departments is in addition to (a) the £1.25 billion investment for perinatal and children and young people’s mental health announced by the then Deputy Prime Minister in March 2015 and (b) the £600 million investment for mental health announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

Alistair Burt

The investment for liaison mental health services and crisis home response teams detailed by the Prime Minister on 11 January 2016 is funded from within the Department’s overall Spending Review settlement.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2016 to Question 21142, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times.

Alistair Burt

Pursuant to my answer and as announced by the Prime Minister on 11 January, we are providing a further £247 million over the next five years to provide 24-hours, seven days a week liaison psychiatry services in accident and emergency (A&E) departments to support people who attend A&E, who may have mental ill health, to ensure they are assessed and receive the most appropriate treatment.

We are making additional resources available to the National Health Service to deal with increased demand in A&E departments by backing the NHS Five Year Forward View with £10 billion a year real terms additional funding by 2020-21, compared to 2014-15, with £3.8 billion real terms growth in 2016-17.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department makes available for people who are returning to work after a period of ill health.

Justin Tomlinson

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has developed Fit for Work to help people who are returning to work after a period of ill health. Fit for Work provides both a supportive occupational health assessment and general health and work advice to employees, employers and General Practitioners (GPs), to help individuals stay in or return to work.

People who have been unemployed due to ill health may be also eligible for support from a number of other programmes, including:

• Work Choice, which is a specialist disability employment programme that provides tailored support for disabled people who face barriers to finding and retaining work

• Specialist Employability Support (SES), which was launched in 2015, is a new national provision, designed to help unemployed disabled adults with the most complex needs to secure and sustain employment or self-employment.

• The Work Programme, which allows providers the flexibility to design an innovative and personalised approach to help participants back into sustained employment.

Additionally, an individual who is returning to their current job or a new job after a period of ill health may be eligible for support from Access to Work, which is a discretionary grant scheme that offers financial awards for in-work support for people whose disability or health condition affects the way they work.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2016 to Question 23676, how much funding has been allocated to the HEE Perinatal Mental Health programme in each year since 2010.

Alistair Burt

Health Education England (HEE) was formed in 2013. For data since 2013, HEE does not have information at this level. HEE has various workforce development programmes managed through its thirteen local offices that might support perinatal mental health, but information on expenditure is not collected to this level of detail.

HEE has a mandate commitment to ensure that trained specialist mental health staff are available to support mothers in every birthing unit by 2017. And a further mandate commitment requires HEE to work with the Royal Colleges to support perinatal mental health training being incorporated into the postgraduate training syllabus for doctors by 2017.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance is issued to (a) mental health professionals and (b) GPs on the relationship between vitamin B12 and depression-like symptoms.

Alistair Burt

The issuing of clinical guidance to healthcare professionals is the responsibility of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the relevant Royal Colleges and professional associations.

General practitioners (GPs) are usually the first health professional an individual will see when in contact with health services. GPs should be familiar with the signs, symptoms and complications, including psychiatric abnormalities, of vitamin B12 deficiency and with the methods for diagnosing and treating it. Guidance is available from sources commonly consulted by GPs, including Clinical Knowledge Summaries and Patient.co.uk.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to monitor implementation of the duties in the Children and Families Act 2014 on local authorities to (a) identify, (b) assess the needs of and (c) provide whole family support for young carers from April 2016.

Edward Timpson

Section 96 of the Children and Families Act 2014, which came into force in April 2015, imposes a duty on local authorities to to “…take reasonable steps to identify the extent to which there are young carers within their area who have needs for support.” Once a young carer has been assessed, the local authority must consider whether the child has needs that could be met by services provided under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, that is, whether they should be supported as a child in need.

The Department currently supports the Carers Trust to help local authorities and voluntary sector partners to embed good practice, including good practice surrounding whole family support. This approach is intended to ensure effective, joined up, support with the potential to offer a single point of professional contact for young carers and their families. We will draw on the learning from that work when considering further action.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to ensure that the expansion of parenting programmes will be integrated with local transformation plans for children and young people’s mental health services.

Alistair Burt

The Government has accepted the recommendation in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published February 2016, to review the best way to ensure the expansion of the parenting programme announced by the Prime Minister in his Life Chances speech. The Department for Work and Pensions is currently considering how to implement this and further thought will be given as to how it fits with local plans for the transformation of children’s and young people’s mental health services.

It is for local areas to consider and commission services based on the needs of their local population. In general, family support is the responsibility of local government. Local Transformation Plans produced in each area of the country set out how they plan to meet the full spectrum of needs of children and young people with mental health problems, and what services should be put in place to address these. The Children and Young Peoples Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Programme, which is being expanded to cover the whole country and extended into other clinical areas including meeting the needs of children aged 0-5, already includes parenting programmes for children with conduct disorders.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Attorney General, what account the CPS takes of mental health conditions when deciding whether to prosecute people under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

Robert Buckland

The Crown Prosecution Service is committed to taking into account the mental health condition of an offender when considering bringing a prosecution. Each case is considered on its merits, taking into account all available information about any mental health issues, and their relevance to the offence, in accordance with the principles set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors (the Code).

The Code explains that there is a balance to be struck between the public interest in diverting a defendant with significant mental illness from the criminal justice system and other public interest factors in favour of prosecution, including the need to safeguard the public.