Following the announcement of the government’s winter plan for mental health and wellbeing, Mark Winstanley, Chief Executive of Rethink Mental Illness said:

“From the outset it has been obvious that the pandemic represents a huge threat to the nation’s mental health, especially to those already experiencing mental illness. Today’s announcement is hugely welcome as it addresses these challenges.

“We’re particularly pleased that there will be additional funding to ensure people can be safely discharged from hospital into community care, along with a plan to tackle long-standing inequalities of the physical health of people severely affected by mental illness. No one would pretend that we yet have parity between mental and physical health, but £500 million to address waiting times, invest in the workforce and ultimately give more people the mental health support they need is warmly welcomed. We also look forward to further cross-government plans emerging in the New Year.   

“This announcement demonstrates that the groundswell of people and organisations calling for a new social contract on mental health is being heard. The key thing now is to make sure that people living with mental illness are at the heart of decisions around how their care is delivered.”

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