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03/26/2006:

"Madness: Britain's mental health time bomb"

Health authorities are secretly cutting millions of pounds in funding for psychiatric services, despite alarming new evidence of a crisis affecting an estimated one in five people in Britain. In a move branded "the real madness" by health experts, debt-ridden NHS trusts are slashing budgets and cutting care for the mentally ill.

An Independent on Sunday investigation has established that trusts are planning to cut more than £20m from budgets ear-marked for psychiatric care, using the cash to bail out other parts of the NHS instead.

In some parts of the country, primary care trusts have drawn up secret measures to slash spending on mental health care by up to a third.

With new figures today showing that children as young as seven are now being affected in an epidemic that costs Britain £100bn each year, the disclosures were seized on as evidence that mental health services were at breaking point.

...Reports by the Mental Health Foundation and the World Health Organisation reveal:

* 1 in 15 children self-harming;

* 19,000 suicide attempts by teenagers every year;

* 20 per cent of people suffering from genuine mental distress such as anxiety or depression and in need of urgent help;

* 25,000 people sectioned every year under the Mental Health Act
independent.co.uk