In the UK, 122,444 - 147,059 individuals are estimated to have died from addiction and mental health causes in 2020, at least 48% higher than COVID-19 deaths. No emergency was declared for addiction and mental health. In fact, funding for addiction treatment has been slashed in real terms over the past 10 years and treatment for smoking has been cut even more. The picture for mental health spending has been more mixed but it does not cover the increased pressure on services over the last decade. Spending in some areas of mental health has also crashed. This session will bring together a panel to discuss our mental health emergency with input from an award nominated journalist, the former Director of the national alliance of drug and alcohol charities and a psychiatrist at the coal face of clinical care. The journalist will use government figures to show the true scale of addiction and mental health deaths during the pandemic and the deep cuts in funding. The psychiatrist will discuss the current mental health funding picture of stagnation in the face of growing demand. The charity will discuss policy and the responses of voluntary providers on the ground to the deaths and funding crisis.
This session aims to help you:
- Examine reported mental health and addiction mortality data during the COVID-19 pandemic and compare it to the last 10 years.
- Understand the effect this has had on patients and their lived experience.
- Understand the effect of stretched service provision at the coal face of clinical care and recovery.
Chair: Gary Winship, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
Caroline Turriff, BBC freelance reporter, London, United Kingdom
Oliver Standing, Humankind, London, United Kingdom
Musa Sami, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
