Mental health services are not all about services provided by psychiatrists and nurses (Psychiatry and nursing numbers remain low, Mental health supplement, 15 May). The development of psychological therapies and increased awareness of the psychosocial roots of mental health problems has been growing apace for at least half a century. Yet some of the professions that provide those services have had many more applicants than training posts for almost as many years. This year 3,866 graduates in psychology applied for 593 places on UK training courses in clinical psychology. Consequently 85% of qualified applicants were turned away from training for a profession in which 99% complete their training, 95% go on to work in the NHS for many years, and there is a fine record of innovation and service development. And that has been the picture for well over a decade. The explanation? Firstly, clinical psychologists and other psychological therapists are not represented at senior levels of NHS management, so there seems to be a genuine lack of understanding about what those professions can offer. Secondly, managers seem unwilling to transfer money from medical and nursing budgets to non-medical budgets because of political pressures from those professions at local and national level.
Bernard Kat
Psynapse Psychological Services, Newcastle upon Tyne
• While your mental health supplement, with its front-page illustration saying “Let’s talk about it”, will add to the knowledge of those unaware of the effects of poor mental health, surely the exhortation needs to now change to “Let’s talk about the funding of mental health services”.
I have recently been made redundant from a post helping young people to gain better mental health services due to the cuts enforced by my local authority. This on top of cuts made in clinician services since 2010 which have prevented young people from receiving a diagnosis from child and adolescent mental health services. This has led to school non-attendance and school exclusions and represents a further kick in the teeth for young people from this government in the last nine years. Thus this government is only too pleased for people to go on talking about mental health.
Alan Dazely
Horsham, West Sussex
• An article in your supplement asks whether mindfulness lessons could boost children’s mental health. How about the government improving mental health by not putting unnecessary pressure on young pupils?
Michael Peel
Axbridge, Somerset
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