Revealed: The state of our mental health

Dec 4 2008 by Oliver Clay, Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News

SHOCK statistics show Halton has the region’s second highest rate of hospital admissions for people suffering from mental health problems.

Yet the North West Mental Health Commission claims that NHS Halton and St Helens PCT spends less than average on its mental health patients – £127 per head of the Halton population, compared with the North West average of £147 and £153 across England as a whole.

The figures, requested by the Weekly News under the Freedom of Information Act and released this week, show that Halton is second only to Burnley for mental health admissions.

And almost 4% of Halton residents claim incapacity benefits for mental health conditions, a figure which represents about one-third of the 8,600 Halton residents on incapacity benefits.

Between April-October this year, 214 Halton residents were admitted to hospital with mental health conditions.

Of those, 42 were diagnosed with depression for the first time, 46 were diagnosed with schizophrenia and 32 had self-harmed for the first time.

All the patients were discharged.