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Dept of Health

Answer

Sir Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the contribution of Saneline to the provision of support and advice to mentally ill people and their families; what assessment he has made of the impact of any reduction in Saneline's activities as a result of funding shortfall; and if he will make a statement. [208493] Ms Winterton: Saneline provides information, advice and emotional support for people with mental health problems and responds to around 50,000 callers per year. Saneline operates a virtual network with calls routed to whichever site has capacity. At present, Saneline is operating two of its three centres without a reduction in capacity. Saneline refers many of its callers to a range of other helpline providers who, jointly, take a significant number of mental health calls. There are around 60 other mental health helpline providers within the voluntary and community sector that provide an excellent service and, between them, handle significant number of calls on mental health issues. Of these, Samaritans receive in excess of 4.8 million contacts a year, of which 2.5 million are by telephone and the majority of these are from people with mental health problems. The organisation Rethink's helplines handle approximately 80,000 calls per year. The majority of these helpline providers, including SANE, Samaritans, Rethink and Mind, are members of the Department's mental health helplines partnership, which aims to achieve greater consistency, quality and choice for people who use members' helpline services. In the statutory sector, NHS Direct provides a 24 hour, seven days a week service and its fully-trained staff respond to about 325,000 calls per year from people with mental health issues. NHS Direct works in close partnership with the member organisations of the mental health helplines partnership, including Saneline. The Department's contract with Saneline was for two years and it ends on 31 March 2005. The total contract value was £2 million. Part of the contract payment was delayed during discussions on contractual detail with Saneline and when invoices were delayed as a result. No formal assessment of the impact of any potential reduction in Saneline's activities has been made. Saneline, like other voluntary and community sector organisations in health and social care, can apply for further funding.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

208493; 430 c1340-1W;431 c1975W

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Advisory services Finance Mental illness Saneline

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk