Mental health waiting times target commitment made by Nick Clegg

Speaking this week at the Liberal Democrats conference in Glasgow, Nick Clegg announced waiting time targets for some groups of people with mental health problems in England to be introduced by April next year.

Dr Jennifer Dixon, Chief Executive at the Health Foundation, comments: 'We welcome the focus of this announcement being on the need to address waiting time targets for people with mental health problems. The imbalance of how long people wait for mental and physical health services is highlighted in our QualityWatch report, which is launched this Friday with the Nuffield Trust.It is important to continue this scrutiny, especially for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

'Our own mental health projects have demonstrated how you can effectively transform care by changing the relationships between health services and those with mental health problems. The peer support project at Nottingham Healthcare NHS Trust, which we have funded, involved people drawing on their own experiences of severe mental health problems to support others. This resulted in a 14% reduction in inpatient stays with a saving of around £260,000. The project increased the confidence and hope of both service users and the peer support workers themselves, changing the culture of teams and placing people with experience of mental health at the centre of services.

'This project is just one example of how making small changes to services can have a significant impact on the lives of those who have mental health problems.'

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Notes to Editors

Nottingham Healthcare NHS Trust received funding from the Health Foundation through Closing the gap in changing relationships.