Mental Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, needless to say, I will speak extremely briefly. This amendment seeks to deal with the prejudice against those with mental health problems which is reflected throughout the NHS. If we look at NHS budgets, I believe it is true to say that some 30 per cent of patients suffer with mental health problems, but only 13 per cent of the NHS budget is devoted to people with those problems. It is argued that physical treatments cost a great deal more than mental health treatments, but that situation is very far from straightforward. A complex care bed in a psychiatric hospital, particularly in the private sector, can cost £250,000 a year. Of course, some people remain for that time or a good deal longer. A bed in an intensive care ward can cost £90,000 a year. How many physically ill patients have treatment regimes that cost anything like that amount? The principal argument behind this amendment has been that a quarter of people seeking assessment and help with their mental health problems are turned away. The likelihood is that a good proportion of those people will finish up needing these very expensive in-patient psychiatric admissions. The reality is that within the mental health budget, funding is heavily focused on those services directly affected by the Mental Health Act—for example, special hospitals, medium secure units and intensive care units where detained patients tend to be looked after. If someone really wants mental health services, believe me, they need to have a thorough-going psychiatric breakdown and get themselves detained under the Act. If you do not do that, you have not got much chance of anything like adequate care and treatment. I really do not believe that the Government want to be responsible for a service with that extreme imbalance in the allocation of resources. This amendment would over time encourage more resources to be focused on prevention. This would support the Government’s welfare reform strategy, of which the Minister is much more aware than probably any of the rest of us. Early assessment and evidence-based therapy would prevent people losing their jobs and help others back to work. This amendment would thus also help to fulfil the Government’s social inclusion agenda—all sorts of government agendas are being talked about in this very short debate. I am sure that none of us supporting this amendment wants a section in the Act which would leave the Government open to endless litigation. This amendment avoids that problem and keeps the House within its legitimate boundaries by not requiring additional resources, so long as reasons are given for an inability to respond to a request. The aim would be, through increased awareness of need as a result of an assessment being done, that appropriate treatment would in time become available. I hope that the Minister will give us some assurance that a way forward can be found to ensure that people suffering crippling mental health symptoms can be assured of an assessment, exactly as any patient with comparable physical symptoms could take for granted.