Hopefully this will bring the issue of mental health back to the fore AND make sure that funding for the appropriate NHS and outpatient services does not get tampered with.
Mental Health services have always been underfunded in England.
Waiting lists[1] for some forms of talking therapy (for people in secondary care, with severe and enduring MH problems) can be very long. In Gloucestershire there's[2] a max 6 week wait for assessment and then 18 week wait for treatment to start. This is for people being treated in the community, as an alternative to hospitalisation. And Glos is pretty good at this. Some places there's waits of over a year.
Luckily there's something called "IAPT" (Improved Access to Psychological Therapies) which is ring-fenced[3] funding to provide evidence based (usually cognitive behavioural therapy) in short courses (12 weeks) to people coming from primary care, but not in secondary care. Usually you can self refer for assessment. You might need to ask your GPs surgery for "IAPT" or "PCAT" (primary care and assessment team), because some of them don't appear to know it exists.
[1] be careful with terminology here. I'm using it wrong. Waiting list is a defined term with a specific meaning. If you're asking a local health board about the length of time people have before they start treatment you want to avoid use of the words "waiting list".
[2] These times were accurate last time I asked, about 2 years ago. These times are significantly better than they were 5 years ago, and the local trust is still working to reduce those maximum times.
[3] Maybe I'm wrong about the ring-fencing of the funding?
