For an awful long time, mental health care was the elephant in the room, suffering from a lack of funding in relation to other healthcare services.
Yet in recent years, there has been a turnaround, with mental health issues gaining greater recognition. No more ‘keeping quiet’- people with mental health issues have suffered in silence for too long. Thanks to a healthy smattering of celebrity endorsements and general awareness weeks, a wider acceptance of mental health as a wider problem has been created. The public’s changed perception certainly seemed to have encouraged action with the Government providing greater commitment to achieving parity between physical and mental health.
Funding for mental health isn’t about levelling up the system for the sake of it, it’s about ensuring that people with mental health issues have access to effective treatment. The funding has been a long time coming, but with mental health treatment finally threatening to catch up, it’s crucial that this investment isn’t cut back upon.
But that seems precisely what the NHS may be considering. In 2015, NHS England instructed an increase in funding for mental health services, which was duly acted upon. Worryingly, nearly 40% of them had received a cut to their income by the end of the 2018 financial year.
A recent survey of NHS finance directors found that 40% of respondents from mental health and community trusts plan to reduce the number of permanent clinical staff over the coming year. It’s a concerning time for all permanent mental-health staff, with agency work likely to become a favoured option in the coming years.
We currently have a multitude of mental health nurse vacancies across the North-West and we are keen to keep the quality of care high with your years of expertise. If you think the time is right for agency work, please give us a call on or drop us an email.
