The report “Is mental health care improving”, published by The Health Foundation in 2015, analyses the quality of care services for people with mental health problems in the United Kingdom.
According to the report, it is estimated that in 2007 in England there were around 10.2 million adults with a mental health problem, or 20% of the country’s population. The majority of them (6.1 million people) had common mental disorders – mild or moderate – such as depression or anxiety. 0.7% of the population suffered from personality disorders and 0.5% from psychotic problems. On the other hand, figures show that every year more than 2 million English citizens use mental health services, although most do not use the National Health Service (NHS).
The study by The Health Foundation shows that the services that deal with common mental health problems are better than they were before, and that although secondary care services (normally associated with serious mental disorders) are more numerous, they are still difficult to access.
While in 2004, 10.1% of young people had a mental health problem, the report points out that this population had little information on the subject and few quality services to manage their disorders.
In total, The Health Foundation estimates the cost of mental health treatment in the UK at £105 billion per year.