Tag: Luciana Berger

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many mental health services he has visited in his capacity as Secretary of State since December 2015; and what the date was of each such visit.

David Mowat

The Secretary of State for Health has visited the following mental health services in an official capacity since December 2015.

29 January 2016 King’s College Hospital, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

5 February 2016 Coombe Wood Perinatal Mental Health Unit, Park Royal Centre for Mental Health, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

27 July 2016 STITCH project, Royal Bristol Infirmary, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his assessment is of the adequacy of the availability of talking therapies to young people.

Nicola Blackwood

The Future in Mind report published in March 2015 which followed the work of the Taskforce into Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing recognised the lack of access to treatment for children and young people with mental health difficulties. This suggested that less than 25% – 35% of children and young people with a diagnosable mental health condition, based on epidemiological data from 2005, accessed support. In response to this, the Government committed to realising the vision set out in Future in Mind to deliver a major, system-wide transformation in children and young people’s mental health services. This aims to improve access to services and make evidence-based psychological therapies, also known as talking therapies, more widely available across the country for those children and young people who need them.

To support this transformation, an additional £1.4 billion funding has been made available over the course of this Parliament for spending on children and young people’s mental health. This will be used to improve community-based services so that young people are helped earlier and are less likely to need to go into hospital. It will also enable the expansion and extension of the Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme so that children and young people are able to access high quality and evidence-based interventions wherever they live.

All clinical commissioning groups have been asked to work with their partners to develop Local Transformation Plans to transform their local offer to improve children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. These Plans cover the full spectrum of mental health issues; from prevention and improving access to support and care for existing and emerging mental health problem to ensuring that inpatient services are available for those who need them.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his Department’s policy is on supporting people with mental health issues who are employed in traditionally male-dominated industries.

Nicola Blackwood

We are committed to supporting people with mental health problems to stay in work and the Department of Health and the Department for Work and Pensions established a joint Work and Health Unit to look at these matters.

Improving access to mental health services for those who need them is important and we are increasing access to talking therapy services so that 1.5 million people per year will be able to access support by 2020.

We will shortly be publishing a Green Paper on work and health, which will include a focus on mental health as we know that people with mental health conditions fare poorly in the labour market. Our aim is to help transform the lives and prospects of disabled people and those with a health condition.

We know that the stigma surrounding mental health can create barriers to people seeking and receiving support. We have recently announced £20 million of additional funding to the national Time to Change anti-stigma programme, in conjunction with Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Fund, which works with employers to support them in tackling the stigma in the workplace associated with poor mental health. This next phase of Time to Change places a particular focus on stigma experienced by men.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of suicides among women with autism.

David Mowat

The cross-Government suicide prevention strategy, ‘Preventing suicides in England: a cross-Government outcomes strategy to save lives’ highlights various groups of people for which tailored approaches to meet their mental health needs are required to address risk of suicide. This includes people who are in contact with mental health and/or social care services and people who may experience social factors such as social isolation and social exclusion, which may be experienced by people with autism.

We are looking at ways to strengthen the cross-Government suicide prevention strategy and will set out details later this year.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published a guideline in 2015, ‘Challenging behaviour and learning disabilities: prevention and interventions for people with learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges’ which recommends interventions to mitigate risks, including for people with autism, such as self-harm and suicide.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 28 October 2015 to Question 13212, by when the assurance of clinical commissioning groups’ (CCG) local transformation plans by NHS England’s regional teams are planned to be completed; and whether he plans that the additional £30 million that has been allocated to CCGs will be spent in full in 2015-16.

Alistair Burt

The deadline for clinical commission groups to submit their Local Transformation Plans was Friday 16 October, and plans were submitted covering all local areas. These plans are currently being assured by NHS England’s regional assurance teams and this is intended to be completed during November.

The £30 million NHS England allocated to clinical commissioning groups for improving children and young people’s eating disorders is intended to be spent in 2015-16.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many perinatal mental health admissions there were in 2014-15.

Alistair Burt

The information requested is detailed below. It shows the count of finished admission episodes (FAEs) with a primary diagnosis of a mental health issue associated with the puerperium in 2014-15. This is currently a provisional figure

Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector (provisional)

Year	Count of FAEs
2014-15	343

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

Notes:

An FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.

The data are provisional and may be incomplete or contain errors for which no adjustments have yet been made. Counts produced from provisional data are likely to be lower than those generated for the same period in the final data set. This shortfall will be most pronounced in the final month of the latest period, ie November from the (month 9) April to November extract. It is also probable that clinical data are not complete, which may in particular affect the last two months of any given period. There may also be errors due to coding inconsistencies that have not yet been investigated and corrected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many mental health in-patient units and beds there have been in English prisons in each year since 2010.

Ben Gummer

Whilst healthcare wings within some prisons provide 24 hour health care, beds within these units are not specifically designated for mental health and may be used by prisoners with a range of physical or mental health problems.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans he has to assure the quality of providers of the new two tier university specialist mental health mentoring provision.

Joseph Johnson

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have clear responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to support students, including those with mental health conditions. It is for the HEI to determine what welfare and counselling services they need to provide to their students.

In addition, Disabled Students Allowances (DSAs) are available to meet the additional costs of study-related support needs, where the needs of the student cannot be met by the institution by way of a reasonable adjustment.

A new quality assurance framework is being developed for support that is funded by DSAs, so as to provide assurance on both quality and financial matters. The quality assurance framework will be in place in 2016. All support workers will be required to meet quality standards in order to be funded through DSAs. Discussions with stakeholders regarding new mechanisms for the selection of non-medical help support providers are already underway.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of local authorities have a suicide prevention group.

Alistair Burt

The information requested is not collected centrally.

However, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention published an Inquiry into Local Suicide Prevention Plans in England (January 2015). The Inquiry included a survey of local authorities by the APPG, which indicated that 70% of local authorities have a suicide prevention plan and 60% have a multi-agency suicide prevention group.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of in-patients in each of the last five years have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983.

Alistair Burt

The proportion of in-patients who have been detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 in each of the last five years is detailed on the attached table Detentions under the Mental Health Act 1983 as a proportion of people in hospital.