Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2014 to Question 216876, what steps the Government is taking to improve the take-up of substance misuse services by mental health patients who have drug and alcohol dependencies.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 established Health and Wellbeing Boards as the statutory mechanism for bringing local systems together to understand and address local need through the joint strategic needs assessment, and joint health and wellbeing strategies.

The Government’s Mental Health Implementation Framework – No Health without Mental Health, published in July 2012, highlighted the need to bring together local partnerships to improve mental health and enhance life chances and improve the physical health and wellbeing of people with mental health problems.

Public Health England is committed to facilitating this approach through the development of updated guidance as part of the Mental Health Crisis Concordat action plan and has convened the national Mental Health Intelligence Network expert reference group (ERG) on Co-existing Substance Misuse and Mental Health Issues, which first met in March. The ERG has proposed to update the existing dual diagnosis guidance and oversee its implementation as a priority. This guidance is due for publication in September 2015.