A CHARITY has condemned a council for the amount it spends on services aimed at preventing mental health issues.

Figures have revealed that North Yorkshire County Council spends less than 0.2 per cent of its public health budget on mental health.

The council has allocated £30,000 for mental health services for 2014/15 out of a £19,732,500 grant, compared to around £6m on sexual health and £5m on smoking and obesity.

Mental health charity Mind said it found that local authorities in England spend an average of 1.36 per cent of health budgets on mental health.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, said: “Just like physical health, we all have mental health.

“Mind’s findings show, however, that while local authorities are happy to spend on preventing physical health problems, their equivalent spending on mental health is unacceptably low.

“We need to invest in everyone’s mental health, particularly for people who are more likely to become unwell such as younger people, pregnant women, people who are isolated, or those living with a long term physical health problem.”

Mr Farmer said demand for mental health services are increasing and that antidepressant prescriptions were rising, and urged local authorities to focus on prevention.

He added: “We want the next Government to introduce a national strategy to ensure local authorities know what to do, and use their budgets to prevent mental health problems developing.”

North Yorkshire County Councillor Don Mackenzie, executive member for public health and prevention, stressed that the council was ‘increasing expenditure’ to deal with the problem but admitted ‘more needs to be done.'

He said: “For mental health, there is a small amount directly spent on it from the public health budget, but much of it comes from the general health system, the NHS and today the Clinical Commissioning Groups.

“We recognise the importance of introducing measures to prevent mental health problems and to mitigate the effect of the disease.

“That is why we are increasing expenditure in this field as we develop a distinctive public health service for North Yorkshire.”

Cllr Mackenzie said the council’s health services recognise the growing problem and have made mental health one of its top priorities.

He added: “Everyone recognises all too well that mental health is going to be an increasing problem for us all so we have to have a robust strategy in place to combat it.

“That is why there is going to be the start of a consultation on mental health strategies.”