IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Money and Mental Health responds to government announcement dropping plans for 10-year mental health and wellbeing strategy

25 January 2023

The government has this week announced that it is shelving its proposed 10-year plan for mental health and wellbeing. Instead, it is planning to develop a Major Conditions Strategy to improve support for mental health problems, alongside other conditions such as cancers and cardiovascular diseases

Responding to the news, Helen Undy, Chief Executive of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, said: “It’s extremely disappointing that the government has scrapped its 10-year Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan. This is a real missed opportunity to tackle the links between financial difficulty and mental health problems, at a time when more and more people are facing this terrifying combination of problems.

“Addressing those issues requires systemic change and a concerted focus from government. We have serious concerns that by lumping mental health into a much broader strategy covering a host of other conditions, the government will fail to bring the systemic change needed to improve the nation’s mental health.

“This announcement also makes it even more vital that the government moves quickly to publish its new suicide prevention strategy, and that this has a strong focus on how financial problems can be a driver of suicide. With as many as 1 in 6 UK adults saying they have felt suicidal as a result of the rising cost of living, there is no time for the government to waste.”

ENDS

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Notes to Editors

• The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute is an independent charity set up by Martin Lewis, and committed to breaking the link between financial difficulty and mental health problems. We conduct research, develop practical policy solutions and work in partnership with both those providing services and those using them to find what really works. www.moneyandmentalhealth.org