Department of Health and Social Care written question – answered at on 24 May 2018.
Luciana Berger
Labour/Co-operative, Liverpool, Wavertree
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report, Alcohol and Mental Health: Policy and Practice in England, published by the Institute of Alcohol Studies and Centre for Mental Health in April 2018, what plans he has to tackle the gaps in provision of treatment services for those with co-morbid alcohol use and mental health difficulties.
Luciana Berger
Labour/Co-operative, Liverpool, Wavertree
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to tackle the co-morbidity of alcohol use and mental health difficulties under the Government's alcohol strategy.
Steve Brine
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
Local authorities are responsible for assessing the needs of their local population, including people with alcohol problems, and commissioning services to meet these needs. Needs assessment and commissioning to support people who have co-occurring alcohol and mental health problems should be done in partnership with local National Health Service mental health trusts which are responsible for local mental health issues.
Public Health England (PHE) works with local authorities, supporting the needs assessment and commissioning process, with data, guidance and other tools. This includes guidance on meeting the needs of people with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders, and data about co-occurring conditions. This guidance and data can be found at the following links:
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile-group/mental-health/profile/drugsandmentalhealth
PHE also supports NHS England’s commissioning for quality and innovation scheme aimed at preventing ill health by risky behaviours - alcohol and tobacco. This programme targets improving services for people with mental health needs who present to accident and emergency services. The Government is committed to exploring how to improve coordination of mental health services and drug and alcohol rehabilitation and will use the development of the new alcohol strategy to examine this further.
Yes0 people think so
No3 people think not
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