Nick Clegg announces plans to drag mental health discrimination out of 'the dark ages'

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is today launching a campaign alongside charity Time To Change, which is appealing for NHS services to treat mental health issues as seriously as physical health.

Speaking to the BBC this morning, the Liberal Democrat leader looked to highlight attitudes within the NHS that can lead to serious mental health issues being overlooked, saying: “It is just plain wrong to treat mental health as the poor cousin to physical health in the NHS.

“There are too many parts of the country that have suffered for too long with commissioners in the NHS not providing mental health services with the same support as other parts of the NHS.”

Armed with the statistics of a recent Time To Change survey, Mr Clegg is today speaking at a conference where he will launch a new Mental Health Action Plan, claiming current attitudes to mental health are full of ‘stigma and stereotypes’, even to the extent of being ‘stuck in the dark ages’.

Key findings of the survey include that more than half of people who have suffered mental health complications claimed that the stigma and discrimination they experienced was worse than the illness itself; that nearly a quarter of young people claimed discrimination and stigma had stopped them going to school; and that a quarter of people waited for over a year before they told their loved ones.

Central to the Government’s desired impact on these issues is an extension to the right of service users to choose where they go for care, as well as more effective utilisation of voluntary and independent providers.

Further to this, 2015 will see clearer standards announced on access to mental health services and waiting times, while a Friends and Family Test will be available in all mental healthcare settings by the end of the year.