Parkinson's Disease: Mental Health Services
(asked on 26th February 2018) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to provide mental health support for people with Parkinson's disease who experience (a) anxiety and (b) depression; and if he will make a statement.
The new updated guideline on Parkinson’s disease published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in July 2017 includes recommendations on managing depression in Parkinson’s in line with its own best practice guidance on depression in people with chronic health problems. In addition, NHS England commissions the specialised neurological care that people with Parkinson’s disease may need, and it has set out that such specialised care should include access to psychologists to manage symptoms like anxiety and depression. More information on the NICE guidance and NHS England’s neurosciences services can be found at the following links:
www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-d/d04/
NHS England is also working with the Neurological Alliance in support of the new national Neurology Advisory Group, which is considering ways to reduce variation and drive improvement in neurological care. This includes looking at issues such as psychological support, which were raised in the report ‘Parity of esteem for people affected by neurological conditions: meeting the emotional, cognitive & mental health needs of neurology patients’, published by the Neurological Alliance on 5 July 2017.
Finally, as set out in ‘Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health’, published in July 2016, the expansion of psychological therapies services will require building skills and capacity in the workforce. This includes: top-up training in new competencies for long-term conditions (relevant to people with neurological conditions, such as Parkinson’s, and other long term health problems) and medically unexplained symptoms for current staff; targeted training in working with older people; and training new staff to increase overall capacity – such as the 3,000 additional mental health therapists located in primary care.