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Box 2 Key messages on the treatment gap in mental health services in England

From: Specialist mental health services in England in 2014: overview of funding, access and levels of care

There is a very significant overall treatment gap in mental health with about 75 % of people with mental illness receiving no treatment at all [1]

The treatment gap contributes to unacceptably high mortality rates, as the available data suggest that people with mental illness can die up to 15–20 years earlier on average than individuals without mental illness [35, 36]

There are significant and inappropriate variations in the delivery of mental health services [9]

Information on mental health service expenditure currently lack sufficient detail

There is a clear fall in investment and expenditure despite evidence of an increase in mental health burden [12, 17, 21]

It is unclear whether the disinvestment has been greater for mental than for physical health provision

There appear to be considerable discrepancies between overall national figures for resource reductions and the figures available locally from mental health Trusts

There are no available data sets which capture the implications for mental health services of aggregate expenditure reductions across multiple sectors (criminal justice, social care, non-statutory, and the voluntary sectors)