Claire Murdoch, the national director for mental health in England, recently argued that some sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) are failing to do ‘justice’ to mental health. Following on from this, we might ask what justice would look like if we had it. For me, the answer would have to include making mental health central to work on new models of care and also part of the approach taken in STPs towards improving population health.
Ignoring the psychological aspects of health and wellbeing leads to some of the grossest inefficiencies in the health and care system. For example, we have estimated that in England, poor mental health drives up the annual cost of long-term physical health conditions by between £8 billion and £13 billion. The fact is – and it should hardly surprise us – that when people are struggling to deal with the social and emotional pressures in their lives, their physical health often deteriorates – and the impact of that is felt strongly in general practice, A&E and elsewhere. And yet all too often we act as if these issues should be of concern only to mental health professionals.
Leaders in some parts of the country are using the process of developing STPs as an opportunity to rethink the approach taken to mental health and wellbeing across their local systems, and are embedding mental health in every strand of their work. Those who haven’t yet done this risk missing a significant opportunity to use STPs to deliver better population health and better value.
For full comment see The King’s Fund 16 December 2016