Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the foreword of the NHS Mental Health Taskforce report, The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published in February 2016, what steps he is taking to ensure that tackling poverty and inequalities are a core part of his Department’s mental health strategy.

Alistair Burt

We welcome the publication of the independent Mental Health Taskforce report and we will work with NHS England and other health bodies to embed the recommendations into our work programmes. We recognise the inequalities that may be experienced by people from lower socio-economic groups both in terms of exposure to risk factors for poor mental health and accessing mental health services and their experiences of mental health services when they do access care.

We will be working with stakeholders to ensure we are addressing inequalities issues including those identified in the Mental Health Taskforce report.