Photographs Gallery Stock, John Frost Newspapers Photographs Gallery Stock, John Frost Newspapers
BEHIND THE HEAD LINES
You’d be hard pressed to find a news article about the state of mental healthcare that isn’t swamped by facts detailing the NHS’s struggle to keep up with demand and budget cuts. The statistics are headline-worthy: mental illness receives only 13 per cent of NHS spending, despite accounting for around 23 per cent of the total impact of ill health, and affecting one in four UK residents each year. Then there’s the loss of 15,000 beds in specialist mental health units in the past 15 years due to cutbacks, and the fact that local mental health trusts in England have had £600 million cut from their funds since 2011.