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Council's spend "unacceptably low" 1.5% on public mental health

Mental health charity Mind has found that local authorities in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire spend an average of 1.5 per cent of their public health budget on mental health.

Local authorities have a remit to prevent both physical and mental health problems in the communities they serve. Yet Mind's findings show that councils in our region have a combined public health budget of £228m but allocate just £3.5m to public mental health.

This comes despite that fact that mental health problems cost the country an estimated £100 billion each year through lost working days, benefits, lost tax revenue and the cost of treatment, and account for 23 per cent of the total burden of disease in the UK.

Mind argues that spending on preventing mental health problems developing is just as important as physical health, particularly in relation to more at risk groups such as children and young people, pregnant women, people who are isolated and people living with long term physical health problems.

The charity is calling on the next Government to introduce a national strategy for prevention to ensure local authorities and public health teams use their budgets to prevent mental health problems developing and reduce the numbers of people becoming unwell.

Just like physical health, we all have mental health. Mind's findings show, however, that while local authorities are happy to spend on preventing physical health problems, their equivalent spending on mental health is unacceptably low.

"We need to invest in everyone's mental health, particularly for people who are more likely to become unwell such as younger people, pregnant women, people who are isolated, or those living with a long term physical health problem.

"With demand for mental health services increasing, antidepressants on the up and more people accessing talking therapies, we are beginning to see the scale of the unmet need for mental health services in England.

" As a society we must start looking at what we can do to help prevent people from developing mental health problems in the first place.

"Local authorities need much clearer guidance and support on how best to tackle mental health problems.

"We want the next Government to introduce a national strategy to ensure local authorities know what to do, and use their budgets to prevent mental health problems developing and reduce the number of people becoming unwell."

– Paul Farmer, MIND chief executive