Our response to the Mental Health Taskforce Report
Today’s Taskforce report offers solutions to many of the challenges that come up time and again in our conversations with people, from long waiting times for talking therapies to a lack of support when people are in crisis.
The Mental Health Taskforce was set up by NHS England in March 2015 to produce a new five-year national strategy for mental health in England.
The Mental Health Taskforce Report published today, is aligned to the NHS’s Five Year Forward View, a vision for an improved NHS.
Responding to the publication, our Interim Chair Jane Mordue, said:
"Attitudes to mental health in this country are changing for the better, with people talking more openly about their experiences than ever before. At the same time, local Healthwatch across England are hearing that mental health is now the public’s number one health concern.
“Today’s Taskforce report offers solutions to many of the challenges that come up time and again in our conversations with people, from long waiting times for talking therapies to a lack of support when people are in crisis.
"Importantly though, people recognise the pressures that services are under and have realistic ideas of how things can be improved. For example people told us they want access to a more flexible range of services, such as more peer support and help from the voluntary sector, to prevent the need for crisis care further down the line.
“We know from the work Healthwatch across the country have done with mental health commissioners and providers that engaging people in improving care and support makes a real difference to how those services deliver for people. As the Taskforce recommendations are implemented it is vital that service users and the wider community are involved from the start.”
