Mental Health Services: Chronic Illnesses

(asked on 18th December 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the level of access to mental health services for people with degenerative illnesses.


Answered by
Jackie Doyle-Price Portrait
Jackie Doyle-Price
This question was answered on 22nd December 2017

NHS England collects monthly data on the number of referrals made by general practitioners to memory assessment services for people with neurologically degenerative conditions such as dementia. In November 2017, we know that 2,892 referrals were made to mental health services specifically memory services.

People with degenerative illness can access psychological treatments for anxiety and depression which are available through local Improving Access to Psychological Treatment (IAPT) services. The Government recognises there is a need to better integrate mental and physical health services and has committed to delivering the recommendations in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health for an additional 600,000 people to have access to integrated evidence-based psychological therapies each year by 2020/21.

The expansion of IAPT services will be through IAPT –LTC (Long Term Conditions) services that are integrated into physical healthcare pathways, supporting people with comorbid physical and mental health conditions. The IAPT-LTC services will aim to ensure people with long-term physical health problems have the same access to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence-recommended psychological therapies as other people and commissioners will be expected to have clear access criteria for IAPT-LTC services that are agreed with all relevant services. Many of these services will be co-located with primary and community care, with the aim of providing more convenient and tailored treatment.

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