Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase access to mental health support services for ICU survivors; and whether he has assessed the potential merits of working with local authorities and local health services to help ICU survivors’ rehabilitation via peer support groups.

In March, we published the Mental Health Recovery Action Plan, with a one-off targeted investment of £500 million to ensure that we have the right support in place over the coming year. This plan outlines our approach to support groups which have been most impacted by the pandemic including expanding capacity of services to respond to the growing number of individuals who may need clinical support as a result of their treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU). For example, Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services, which offer confidential treatment of conditions such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will expand, supporting 1.6 million more people to access services in 2021/22, backed by an additional £38 million.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have also invested £10 million to set up specialist ‘long’ COVID-19 assessment services in every area across England to assess the physical and mental health needs of patients, including those who have been treated in an ICU. This includes psychological assessments and referral if someone is suffering from mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety or PTSD. No specific assessment has been made of providing peer support groups with local services. However, expanding peer support is a key part of the NHS Long Term Plan.