MHPG Mental Health Winter Support Package
Government urged to implement a support package to make sure people with severe mental health problems are adequately protected in the coming months.
The Mental Health Network has worked with MHPG colleagues to develop a proposal for a winter support package. We are calling on government to implement this package to make sure people with severe mental health problems are adequately protected and supported in the coming months.
The proposal states that, as a critical part of its coronavirus response, the Government must deliver a ‘mental health winter support package’ that includes:
- A commitment to ensure that people needing Covid-safe face-to-face health and social care support are able to access it, even in Tier 3 lockdown areas or during national lockdown.
- National guidance to protect mental health inpatient beds and not to sacrifice capacity to meet needs of acute hospitals
- Free flu vaccinations for people with serious mental illness and increase uptake of physical health checks
- Supported access to all essential items for people with serious mental illness alongside those people shielding as a ‘highly vulnerable’ group
- Switching off reassessments for disability benefits and removing the threat of benefits sanctions.
Mental Health Policy Group
The Mental Health Policy Group is a coalition of six organisations made of the Mental Health Network, Centre for Mental Health, Mental Health Foundation, Mind, Rethink Mental Illness and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
