A NEW wellbeing strategy will be launched in Bradford and Craven in the New Year, committing the Council and health commissioners to keeping people mentally fit.

Bradford Public Health spoke of its plans for the strategy after mental health charity MIND revealed today that local authorities on average spend less than one per cent of their public health budget on preventing mental health illness.

Bradford was one of 149 local authorities who responded to a Freedom of Information request from the charity.

Mind’s findings also showed the proportion of the public health budgets spent on mental health had dropped every year for the last three years, from a national average of 1.4 per cent in 2013-14 to 0.7 per cent in 2015-16.

In 2014/15 Bradford’s public health budget was £35m and 1.04 per cent of it went on mental health interventions.

Sarah Muckle, Consultant in Public Health for Bradford Council, said: “The approach to promoting emotional wellbeing and good mental health is a priority for Bradford district.

“Much of the work done in Public Health and elsewhere, although not necessarily labelled as mental health promotion, directly contributes towards improving the mental wellbeing of Bradford’s population. Our mental health is affected by many things such as the homes and communities in which we live; our relationships with family and friends; the environments in which we work or study; unemployment and our physical health.”

“A new mental wellbeing strategy for Bradford and Craven will be launched in January 2017, and commits the Council and health commissioners to promoting mental wellbeing in our residents.

“The Future in Mind strategy aims to improve the mental wellbeing of children and young people in particular.”

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, the leader of Bradford’s Liberal Democrats group said: “We would argue for a parity on spending between mental and physical health.”

And Councillor Jackie Whiteley, health spokesman for the Conservatives in Bradford, said: “In Bradford’s situation where funding is limited, all money must be spent where it will have the greatest benefit on public health.”

From April next year local authorities will have to report on what they spend on public mental health. Currently it is part of a miscellaneous category unlike sexual health services, obesity and stop smoking services.

Mind’s chief executive Paul Farmer said: “We need local authorities to use their budgets to help people in their communities stay mentally healthy and reduce the chances of them becoming unwell.”

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