Mental Health Overhaul in England

The Papers

Newspaper headlines: Mental health overhaul, Madeleine theory and Baftas for DiCaprio and Winslet

By Alex Kleiderman BBC News

• 15 February 2016

Government plans to overhaul NHS mental health services in England with a £1bn-a-year spending boost are documented in Monday's papers.

The Guardian says the vow to transform treatment is backed by a pledge to invest more money by 2020-21 and follows a wide-ranging set of recommendations by an independent taskforce that surveyed the long-neglected and "chronically underfunded" area.

Describing the plans as a "care revolution", the Times notes that hundreds of thousands of people with chronic health problems such as diabetes and back pain will be offered therapy for depression and anxiety as part of a pledge to end the "separation of head and body".
Plans to ensure young people with mental health problems are no longer placed hundreds of miles away from their families is the focus of the coverage in Independent.
The Daily Mail highlights the help for women suffering from post-natal depression and teenagers with eating disorders.
A finding in the taskforce's "landmark report" that half of all older people in care homes are depressed is recorded by the Daily Telegraph.
In a leading article, the Daily Mirror says the government has "woken up to the crisis after years of cutting mental health provision".