Has the pandemic really been good for the way the NHS treats mental health? That’s the rather startling claim I report on today in my i paper column. Ministers have started to talk — equally surprisingly, it has to be said — about the possibility that they are close to reaching parity of esteem between the treatment of mental and physical health, and that the chaos of Covid is partly responsible.
Covid has certainly made it harder for the government to just offer talk and no cash on mental health
Now, it slightly depends on what your definition of ‘parity of esteem’ is. If it’s just that party strategists and purse-string-holders in the Treasury now see announcing pots of money for mental health as being equally politically beneficial as a new fund for treating cancer would be, then we probably do have cause for celebration. Mental health has gone from a niche issue to something politicians are always keen to be talking about — just look at the way things have changed since I wrote this column on how Tories were starting to think it might be worth doing something on mental health back in 2014.
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