Strain on mental health care leaves 8m people without help, say NHS leaders
We are now experiencing a coronavirus backwash which is having a major effect on those waiting for more standard support. Mental health challenges will remain unaddressed because of the massive backlog this story reveals. It tells us:
An estimated 8 million people in England with mental health problems cannot get specialist help because they are not considered sick enough to qualify, NHS leaders have revealed as the toll of the pandemic is laid bare.
The figure, drawn up by mental health trusts and NHS Providers, underlines the gap between the growing need for care for anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, and the ability of the NHS to treat them.
It is in addition to the official waiting list for NHS mental health care, which stands at 1.6 million people, including 374,000 under-18s.
NHS England is understood to view the figure of 8 million, which is based on the known prevalence of mental health conditions and the thresholds dictating who gets access to treatment, as an accurate assessment of the number of those who are missing out on care because services are already so busy, especially given the Covid pandemic’s damage to mental wellbeing.