Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report, Ignoring the alarms: How NHS eating disorder services are failing patients, published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman in December 2018, what steps his Department is taking to review the existing (a) quality and (b) availability of adult eating disorder services to achieve parity with child and adolescent services.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England commissioned a national review of adult eating disorder services in 2017, which is now complete. Data collected on activity, investment and workforce is being reviewed with stakeholders to inform NHS England’s understanding of current provision and existing levels of parity with eating disorder services for children and young people. The data is informing modelling to understand the finance and workforce gaps to achieving greater levels of parity.
Diagnosing and treating eating disorders is an important area of medical practice. It is included within the curriculum for training all doctors, including for general practitioner (where most eating disorders initially present) and in more depth within training for psychiatry, particularly child and adolescent psychiatrists. This training equips doctors to identify the early potential symptoms of an eating disorder and help patients to discuss difficult issues.
This Government recognises the importance of raising awareness and reducing stigma so that more people feel able to talk about their mental health, including eating disorders, and seek treatment. That is why in January 2017, the Prime Minister committed to having mental health first aid training available to secondary schools, aiming to have trained at least one teacher in every secondary school by 2020 and to all primary schools by 2022. This Government has also provided grant funding to the Time to Change national mental health anti-stigma campaign since 2012. Time to Change works with people with experience of mental health problems, including eating disorders, to challenge stigma and to improve social attitudes towards mental health.
The Government has also committed to equip one million people to be better informed to look after their own mental health, so Public Health England is currently leading the development of a £15 million national mental health campaign called ‘Every Mind Matters’.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to (a) raise awareness of the early signs and symptoms of eating disorders and (b) encourage those with such symptoms to seek help and treatment for their condition.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England commissioned a national review of adult eating disorder services in 2017, which is now complete. Data collected on activity, investment and workforce is being reviewed with stakeholders to inform NHS England’s understanding of current provision and existing levels of parity with eating disorder services for children and young people. The data is informing modelling to understand the finance and workforce gaps to achieving greater levels of parity.
Diagnosing and treating eating disorders is an important area of medical practice. It is included within the curriculum for training all doctors, including for general practitioner (where most eating disorders initially present) and in more depth within training for psychiatry, particularly child and adolescent psychiatrists. This training equips doctors to identify the early potential symptoms of an eating disorder and help patients to discuss difficult issues.
This Government recognises the importance of raising awareness and reducing stigma so that more people feel able to talk about their mental health, including eating disorders, and seek treatment. That is why in January 2017, the Prime Minister committed to having mental health first aid training available to secondary schools, aiming to have trained at least one teacher in every secondary school by 2020 and to all primary schools by 2022. This Government has also provided grant funding to the Time to Change national mental health anti-stigma campaign since 2012. Time to Change works with people with experience of mental health problems, including eating disorders, to challenge stigma and to improve social attitudes towards mental health.
The Government has also committed to equip one million people to be better informed to look after their own mental health, so Public Health England is currently leading the development of a £15 million national mental health campaign called ‘Every Mind Matters’.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the level of access to mental health services for people who have been recently released from prison.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Improving the physical and mental health of people in prison is a top priority for this Government.
It is recognised that there are large numbers of people in prison with mental ill health. When people do go to prison, they should receive the same standard and access to National Health Service healthcare and mental health treatments and care as people in the community. The Department has not made a formal assessment of levels of access and quality of mental health services for people in prison.
It is important to ensure that care started in prison can be continued on release into the community. Offenders should have the same access to healthcare services as everyone else once they are released from prison. Progress has been made in this area and general practitioner practices are now required to pre-register prisoners prior to their release.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the level of access to mental health services for people in prison.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Improving the physical and mental health of people in prison is a top priority for this Government.
It is recognised that there are large numbers of people in prison with mental ill health. When people do go to prison, they should receive the same standard and access to National Health Service healthcare and mental health treatments and care as people in the community. The Department has not made a formal assessment of levels of access and quality of mental health services for people in prison.
It is important to ensure that care started in prison can be continued on release into the community. Offenders should have the same access to healthcare services as everyone else once they are released from prison. Progress has been made in this area and general practitioner practices are now required to pre-register prisoners prior to their release.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the quality of mental health services available for people in prison.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Improving the physical and mental health of people in prison is a top priority for this Government.
It is recognised that there are large numbers of people in prison with mental ill health. When people do go to prison, they should receive the same standard and access to National Health Service healthcare and mental health treatments and care as people in the community. The Department has not made a formal assessment of levels of access and quality of mental health services for people in prison.
It is important to ensure that care started in prison can be continued on release into the community. Offenders should have the same access to healthcare services as everyone else once they are released from prison. Progress has been made in this area and general practitioner practices are now required to pre-register prisoners prior to their release.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the level of access to mental health services for people with degenerative illnesses.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England collects monthly data on the number of referrals made by general practitioners to memory assessment services for people with neurologically degenerative conditions such as dementia. In November 2017, we know that 2,892 referrals were made to mental health services specifically memory services.
People with degenerative illness can access psychological treatments for anxiety and depression which are available through local Improving Access to Psychological Treatment (IAPT) services. The Government recognises there is a need to better integrate mental and physical health services and has committed to delivering the recommendations in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health for an additional 600,000 people to have access to integrated evidence-based psychological therapies each year by 2020/21.
The expansion of IAPT services will be through IAPT –LTC (Long Term Conditions) services that are integrated into physical healthcare pathways, supporting people with comorbid physical and mental health conditions. The IAPT-LTC services will aim to ensure people with long-term physical health problems have the same access to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence-recommended psychological therapies as other people and commissioners will be expected to have clear access criteria for IAPT-LTC services that are agreed with all relevant services. Many of these services will be co-located with primary and community care, with the aim of providing more convenient and tailored treatment.