Hunt: Mental health care is 'not good enough'

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has admitted more needs to be done to improve mental health crisis care.

Speaking to ITV’s Peston on Sunday, he said: “Clearly at the moment if you have mental health problems we are not doing as well as we would like to."

“Although many people would say we have some of the best mental health provision in Europe but it’s still not good enough," he added

Mr Hunt also said the NHS service’s “crisis care response” in relation to mental health needs to be improved.

“At the moment if you have a mental health crisis you don’t get as good care as people who have a stroke or a heart attack.”

He also said: "If you a parent who has a child with some really serious psychological illnesses what you want is for that child to be treated by the NHS.

"But too often what happens it that the first line of help you get is from the police service and you can end up being in a police cell and that can make the condition worse."

Theresa May has announced a major plan to revamp mental health policies including replacing the 1983 Mental Health Act with a new Mental Health Treatment Bill.

She has also pledged to “ensure that mental health is taken far more seriously in the workplace”.

Mr Hunt said of the plan to tackle discrimination in the workplace: “It’s about the personnel departments of companies understanding that when it comes to mental health this is not something that’s abnormal.

"This is something that’s very, very common and all of us in our lives have crises at different moments.”