The likelihood of people with a serious mental health problem dying prematurely in comparison with the general population has risen under the Tories, despite a clear Government commitment to narrow the gap, Labour reveals today.

Analysis from the House of Commons Library, commissioned by Luciana Berger MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health, reveals that, when compared with the general population, people with a serious mental illness are more likely to die early than they were in 2010.

Whilst the Tory Government set a clear mandate to the NHS to reduce premature mortality for people with mental health problems and ‘close the health gap between people with mental health problems and the population as a whole’, the gap in mortality between people with a mental illness and the general population has in fact has grown wider each year since 2010.

Analysis by the House of Commons Library of official data found that in 2010/11 people with a serious mental illness mental health problems were 3.3 times more likely to die before 75 than the general population, but that by 2013/14 this had risen to 3.5 times likely. Under the measure, people with a ‘serious mental illness’ are defined as those who have been in contact with specialist secondary mental health services at any time over the previous three years - including out-patients, people in contact with community services and in-patients.

Whilst the shocking fact that people with serious mental health problems are more likely to die early than the general population is well documented, worryingly this new analysis shows the risk has steadily increased year on year under the Tory Government. 

The analysis also exposed a wide postcode lottery in the risk of people with serious mental illness dying early. In some areas, such as Newcastle, Reading, and Camden the risk has fallen whereas in other areas, it has risen significantly. In Walsall, for example, the risk of people with mental health problems dying early compared with the general population has more than doubled.

This trend has coincided with the first real-terms cuts to mental health spending in over a decade and raise serious questions about the Tory Government’s approach to mental health. The figures add further doubt over the Prime Minister assertion to be leading a ‘revolution in mental health treatment.’ Whilst Ministers’ claim to have created ‘parity of esteem’ for mental health, the number of people detained under the mental health act has increased by 10 per cent in the past year alone, more people are being sent out of area for a bed, the number of nurses working in mental health has reduced by 10 per cent since 2010, and suicides in England have increased steadily in recent years.

Luciana Berger MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health said:

“For all this Tory Government talks about ‘parity of esteem’ for mental health, the appalling fact is that a person with mental illness is more likely to die early compared with the general population than they were when the Tories came to power.

“Tory Ministers claim to have given mental health equal priority to physical health, but the reality for patients on the grounds tells a very different story. Vital services have been cut or reduced at a time of rising demand. Too many people with mental health problems are becoming more seriously ill as they face long waits for help, more people have had to travel hundreds of miles just to get a bed, or have been left to struggle without any support at all. Suicides have risen steadily and are now the biggest killer of men under 49.

“Ministers must urgently explain what they are going to do to turn their empty rhetoric into real and urgent action to improve the life chances of people with mental illness.”