NHS 'neglectful' of mental health care

Many mental health wards in the UK are at best untherapeutic and at worst unsafe, The Lancet medical journal says.

In a special report to coincide with the passage of the Mental Health Bill last week, the journal says many aspects of mental health care are neglected. Access to psychological treatments remains "pitiful", despite a ruling by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice) that cognitive behavioural therapy should be available on the NHS.

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Anxiety and depression in children have risen by 70 per cent in the past 25 years and there are signs that the environment in which they are growing up is becoming more hostile. A survey by the Department of Health published last week found fewer people in England favour a more tolerant attitude to those with mental illness than in 1994. The journal says: "This opinion is unsurprising. Mental illnesses are not perceived to be as serious as physical ones, by the public and government alike."

One in four people will be affected by mental illness at some point yet mental health services are the first to be cut when the NHS is in deficit. The journal adds: "Ultimately, turning the tide of stigma and neglect that faces many people with mental ill-health in the UK will require a substantial shift in public and ministerial attitudes."