Liz Durrant 🌈 She/Her

Spending Review misses key opportunity to turn around the nation’s mental health - Centre for Mental Health Despite bold statements about an NHS fit for the future, commitments to mental health in today’s Spending Review were disappointingly lacking.

⚠️ Today’s #SpendingReview represents another missed opportunity to take urgent action on mental health. Despite bold statements about creating an NHS fit for the future, commitments to mental health were disappointingly lacking.

Our response 👇🧵 tinyurl.com/mr2h634x

Getting the NHS back on its feet will be impossible without investing in mental health

Yesterday the Chancellor set out bold plans to get the NHS back on its feet. But for this to happen, we need to see comprehensive, sustainable investment in mental health.

Our response to the #SpendingReview in full: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/news/item/sp...

We know today may feel especially heavy for our trans and non-binary siblings.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or affected by the UK Supreme Court’s decision, please know you’re not alone. We’re here for you every day from 10am to 10pm.

#TransRights #Trans #NonBinary #SupremeCourt #Gender

The threat against women and girls is male perpetrators and a justice system (set up by men) which allows them to get away with it. Get back to me when anyone has done something about that issue. In the meantime standing in loving solidarity with my trans friends 🩵🩷🩵

As a women, I do not feel in any way protected by the Supreme Court ruling today. All of the abuse, violence, misogyny, mistreatment and crimes committed against me by men (which have been many) have never been committed by a trans woman.

Our commitment to compassion and inclusion remains at the heart of our work, and we continue to develop and strengthen services to meet the needs of every survivor. (3/3)

Refuge offers a range of specialist services that are accessible to trans women, including our helpline, community-based support, and some accommodation-based services. These are designed to provide safety, dignity, and tailored support to meet individual needs. (2/3)

Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court will not change the way Refuge operates. We remain firmly committed to supporting all survivors of domestic abuse, including trans women. (1/3)

To my trans and non-binary friends: You are seen, valued, and supported. In the face of decisions that may feel exclusionary, know that many stand with you, advocating for a society where everyone's identity is respected and protected.

Personality disorder is not only very much still a diagnosis of exclusion, but also a diagnosis of convenience—used when services can’t (or won’t) understand distress through complex trauma, poverty, neurodivergence, or systemic harm.

Share of spending dedicated to mental health across the NHS has dropped for the first time in years. Taken alongside the sweeping benefit cuts yesterday, we believe that people living with mental illness are currently being failed by this government. The health secretary himself has admitted that mental health is in a dire state, yet there was no mention of mental health in the government’s recent plan to bring down NHS waiting lists. We need to see change. Without a clear and funded plan to ensure people receive care and treatment early, the nation’s mental health will continue to decline and the impact will be felt across society.

🚨 The share of spending dedicated to mental health across the NHS has dropped for the first time in years.

Those of us living with mental illness are currently being failed by this government.

We need to see parity of esteem between mental and physical health.

Putting in place access and waiting time standards for mental health care is also essential.
Unless mental health waiting lists are treated equally to those for physical health, disparity will be entrenched in our NHS. The Government could do this today in order to rebalance our health care system.

The Government has an opportunity to take the steps needed to turn this around. It's committed to keep the Mental Health Investment Standard. But it must go further to ensure that mental health services get closer to a fairer share of NHS resources in the next #SpendingReview.

📢 We're disappointed to hear that the share of NHS spending dedicated to mental health has declined - and at a time when levels of need have been rising.

That the NHS spends >9% of its funding on mental health - when mental ill health accounts for 20% of illness - is in itself deeply unjust. 🧵

‘I’m terrified’: Disabled benefit claimants on the impact of Labour’s £5 billion cuts Welfare recipients tell The Independent what losing their health-related benefits would mean to them

'I’m terrified’: Disabled benefit claimants on the impact of Labour’s £5 billion cuts to welfare

Your regular reminder: A large proportion of the rising #disability bill is due to an ageing population—because disability increases with age. This isn’t a ‘crisis’ of fraud or overdiagnosis, it’s basic demographics.

The actual fraud isn’t people faking disability. It’s politicians pretending to care about disabled people, then slashing the support that keeps us alive.

"Personality disorder services are not trauma services. Renaming ‘PD’ services as ‘complex emotional needs’ or ‘complex trauma’ does not make them trauma-based or trauma-informed services."

-New Ways of Supporting Child Abuse and Sexual Violence Survivors tinyurl.com/48wr54fh

Basic, unsexy sh*t that’s been lost but would make a massive difference for us as patients:

- Day centres
- Volunteer work without DWP pressure
- Community rehabilitation teams
- Having the same careco for more than a year
- good supported accommodation

Deadline approaching - please share!
A career changing opportunity for a nurse or midwife (UK-wide)

https://buff.ly/4joLoah
@lizdurrant19.bsky.social @lisaburrowsphd.bsky.social @cimicifuga.bsky.social @salty-nurse.bsky.social @annie9.bsky.social @annmarieriley10.bsky.social

Women in Charge: the authority files 😏 So, I’m starting a new series called Women in Charge. I’m going to share insights from my research and my own experience. I got my first managers job at 19 and I became a CEO at 28 (and just in case I...

💻 It’s about time I started sharing the findings of my doctorate so here we are, my first post in my new series Women in Charge, talking about authority and the battles to claim it.

💫 Channeling Beyoncé ‘I’m not bossy, I’m the boss’

#WomenLeaders #Authority #Power
open.substack.com/pub/drsarahh...

Now is not the time to take a step back on mental health. We do not believe that the government will deliver on its health and growth missions without a transformative mental health plan that improves the speed and quality of care and tackles the root of the country’s growing mental health needs.

A graphic with a light green background. Bold blue text reads: "The UK government appears to be deprioritising mental health." Below the text is an image of the Houses of Parliament, with the word "NHS" in large, semi-transparent white letters overlapping the building.

The latest NHS England planning guidance sets out instructions, targets and priorities for health leaders.

We’ve learned that the guidance sets out no further plans to tackle the long mental health waiting lists.

These are both at the heart of mental health equality: vital to reduce the life expectancy gap faced by people with a mental illness, and to address racial injustice and disparity. We hope every ICB continues to prioritise these essential measures so that progress towards equality is sustained.

The Planning Guidance has dropped key ambitions from previous years, including ensuring more people with a severe mental illness get an annual physical health check, and a requirement to implement the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework.

While it’s vital to get hospital wait times down, mental health waiting times are just as important. Placing them on a lower footing is unjust at a time when more than a million people are waiting for mental health support.

We're deeply disappointed that waiting lists for elective care have been given priority over those for mental health care.

This gets us no closer to ‘parity’ between mental and physical health, or to transforming the NHS towards community, prevention and digital.

That’s an important safeguard against mental health care budgets being diverted to other areas of health care - but unless ICBs choose to go further, it will mean the NHS still spends less than 10% of its funding for 20% of all health care need.