The Mental Health Foundation has responded to a call for evidence issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on the Government’s new strategy to prevent health problems, Advancing our health: Prevention in the 2020s.
Our response draws together the Foundation’s work on preventing mental health problems. We call for the Government to develop a comprehensive cross-government strategy to prevent mental health problems. The cross-government plan should complement and run alongside the NHS Long Term Plan and should be led by the Cabinet Office.
The plan must meaningfully address the root causes of mental ill-health – in particular, socio-economic inequality, inequality of access to public services and technology, and discrimination. The plan should take a “mental health in all policies” approach and, to this end, should commit each government department to work towards mental health related outcomes which support their existing priorities.
We call on the government to set an ambitious goal to be a world leader in population and public health and commit to significantly reducing the rate of both mental and physical ill-health.