News items

‘The ward felt like a prison. What had I let them do?’: how my daughter was crushed by a health service meant to help her The Guardian 8 November 2025

Thinking outside the box: alternatives to inpatient mental health care (via The Mental Elf) 3 July 2025

Mental health care is being rationed because the government is failing to tackle the spiralling waiting list, the UK’s top psychiatrist has warned, with 48,000 people facing delays of more than two years for treatment to start via The Independent 14 July 2025

What does the Spending Review 2025 mean for mental health?

13 June 2025 By Andy Bell

The Government must urgently address that demand for mental health services is outpacing the resources afforded to them. This page provides analysis on the pressures placed on mental health services, including access to services, workforce, and funding and is updated monthly and quarterly with new data via BMA

17 July 2025

A suitable manner? Seven key elements of a dialogical approach to the Mental Health Act Assessment

21 May 2025

Most areas cut eating-disorder help for under-18s

5 March 2025

Overview of funding for mental health services in England

31 October 2024 Sarah Day

“It’s broken”: Doctors’ experiences on the frontline of a failing mental healthcare system

BMA Mental Health Report 2024

Victoria Macdonald Channel 4 News Health and Social Care Editor challenges Health Minister on continued funding of the Mental Health Investment Standard (MHIS)

Concerns raised that current standards, which insist on increased investment in mental health every year, could be abolished

Proposed reforms to the Mental Health Act risk worsening racial inequalities and criminalising those with autism, experts have said, as ministers are warned the plans will be “meaningless” without funding.

Shifting the Balance Towards Social Interventions: A Call for an Overhaul of the Mental Health System

My daughter had an eating disorder – the NHS sent her 300 miles away for treatment and I broke down

A critical report into how a mental health trust mismanaged its mortality figures was edited to remove criticism of its leadership, the BBC has found https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-66086388 In June, auditors Grant Thornton revealed how the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) h ad lost track of patient deaths.

More than 5,000 mental health patients sent over 62 miles for treatment

Rachel Bannister BBC Breakfast Interview Tuesday 9 August 2022 Out of Area Placements

Thousands of patients forced to travel far from home for NHS mental health treatment

21 June 2023

StopSIM Mental Illness Is Not A Crime

“We are a coalition of service users and allies campaigning for the High Intensity Network’s Serenity Integrated Mentoring (SIM) model to be halted and subject to an independent review..”

Inpatient mental health wards during Covid-19 21/10/2020

Figures lay bare toll of pandemic on UK children’s mental health 21/10/2020

NHS hospital admissions for eating disorders rise among ethnic minorities 18/10/2020

Children’s mental health crisis ‘worsens’ as young people travel ‘hundreds of miles’ for care

Addiction blog BMj How one woman struggled with relapse during the global pandemic 21/04/2020

‘My daughter would be alive today if only she’d received the right care’ 25/08/2019

A mental health unit where two girls died in two months is to close 23/08/2019

Privately-run mental health units putting young people at risk 15/5/2019

PTSD affects ‘one in 13 by age of 18’ By Alex Therrien Health reporter, BBC News 22/02/2019

Mental Health Services are failing to meet rising demand, new TUC report reveals 22/10/2018

Huntercombe Mental Health Hospital closes due to staff shortages 04/02/19

“Rachel Bannister, whose daughter was treated at the centre in 2017, said she was shocked but unsurprised to hear about the closure. “I wish that Huntercombe Edinburgh was closing because the need for high level care has decreased,” she said. “Sadly, I know that this is not the case as very few services exist across the country that provide an alternative model of intensive outpatient intervention that can treat people within their own communities.”

Campaigner Rachel Bannister on Victoria Derbyshire 9/10/18

Revealed: NHS England sent 154 eating disorder patients to Scotland 16th October 2018

Channel 4 interview 10th October 2018 with Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock

Channel 5 News 9th October 2018 The knock-on effect for mental health sufferers waiting for NHS treatment – 5 News

Watch mental health campaigner Rachel Bannister’s live interview with Mark Austin for Sky News 8th October 2018

Shadow Health Scretary Jon Ashworth’s Speech to Labour Party Conference

During on Jon Ashworth’s speech to Labour Party Conference 26/09/2018 he talks about our campaigner Rachel’s story. See transcript below and watch

Here at 11.59 minutes

“But there is something else we need to do.

I recently met Rachel, she told me her story of trying to get help for her anorexic daughter.

Rachel told me how her daughter was sent ‘out of area’ three times over six years to different hospitals including over 300 miles away to Scotland.

Care was always inconsistent in a mental health system fragmented, understaffed, cut back suffering from years of neglect.

It meant a vulnerable teenage girl, desperately ill, left trapped in an endless cycle of admission, relapse and discharge.

As a father of two girls, I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried listening to her story.

We can’t allow – I won’t allow – families to be let down like that.

So we will fully fund child and adolescent mental health services, we’ll invest in eating disorder services and end the injustice of children treated on adult wards or sent miles from home. As we finally deliver true parity of esteem for mental health services.

So in place of fear, we offer hope again.”

Jon Ashworth 26 September 2018