A new survey from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has found only one in 10 nursing staff think governments across the UK are achieving parity of esteem between physical and mental health care.
To mark World Mental Health Day, the RCN has published the findings of a nationwide survey of more than 4,000 nursing staff to highlight the problem and call on governments across the UK to act.
In 2013, the NHS Constitution in England changed to ensure physical and mental health care would be treated equally after legislation on the issue.
However, a decade later nursing staff have told the RCN that mental health remains “the poor relation in the NHS” and described the treatment of mental health patients as “appalling”.
They reported that patients are being forced to wait for months and travel miles for mental health treatment or are having to pay privately to get the care they need.
The survey revealed that NHS services are still not treating people holistically by joining up physical and mental health care. A failure to invest in mental health care means patients with mental health issues have their lives shortened by 15-20 years, and the gap is growing.
One member told the RCN “once you have a mental health diagnosis, you receive worse physical health care”, whilst another said the data was clear, “mental health patients do not have their physical needs met, and vice versa”.
The RCN is calling on all governments across the UK to support mental health care by increasing funding, improving access to services, and ensuring there are safe levels of staffing.
The number of vacant mental health nursing posts is disproportionately high. Whilst mental health nursing staff only make up 13% of the nursing workforce, mental health nursing vacancies constitute almost one-third of all nursing vacancies in the NHS in England. In England alone, there are over 13,000 nursing staff vacancies in mental health services. Leaving mental health services underfunded and under-resourced has a severe impact on patient care.
To get the best care, people should expect integrated services. Health boards and integrated care systems need to establish robust systems to ensure treatment is equitable and coordinated. Nursing staff told the RCN that in practice, care is “pigeonholed” and getting the right treatment often comes down to knowing the right people.
RCN Chief Nurse, Professor Nicola Ranger, said:
“Despite many years of promises and commitments for equal treatment of physical and mental health care, nursing staff are seeing things heading in the wrong direction. Governments across the UK are failing to provide the funding and resources that mental health care services need, with serious care consequences for patients and service users.
“People are waiting far too long, traveling huge distances, or even feeling forced to pay privately to get treatment.
“This World Mental Health Day, we’re reminding governments why parity matters and to provide the funding, resources, and joined-up care between mental and physical health care that people desperately need.”
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Notes to editors
Five Years On: Are we Achieving Parity between Physical and Mental Health?
