11 July 2025
Bipolar UK welcomes the government’s ambition to reform the NHS to provide more preventative, personalised and community-based care. We are encouraged by the multiple references to mental health throughout the Plan, including commitments to invest in mental health emergency departments and expand school-based support.
However, at a time when the government is reviewing the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) process and discussing the nation’s poor mental health, it is disappointing that there is no joined-up strategy to empower people with specific conditions like bipolar to live well.
With the right, tailored and specialist care - including accurate diagnosis, therapy, medication and structured self-management – people with bipolar can and do thrive. That's why it is deeply concerning that bipolar - a serious mental illness affecting over a million people in the UK - is not mentioned once.
The omission risks reinforcing the ongoing invisibility and systemic neglect of people living with the condition. Given bipolar’s high suicide risk and the significant cost to both the NHS and wider society, this is a serious oversight.
Firstly, the current Plan fails to address the need for specialist care. Bipolar is a complex condition that requires specialist clinical oversight. While shifting care into the community is welcome, this must not come at the expense of access to clinicians with an in-depth knowledge of bipolar. A generic approach risks missing the nuance needed for complex mood disorders, including bipolar disorder.
While we support the Plan’s wider workforce ambitions, we are extremely concerned by the lack of any clear commitment to training more psychiatrists or increasing access to specialist staff. The future NHS must include a workforce capable of delivering tailored care for complex conditions like bipolar. Without that investment, the Plan’s aspirations for prevention, personalisation and earlier intervention cannot be delivered.
The Plan’s focus on prevention is also welcome. However, for bipolar, prevention cannot be reduced to general public health campaigns or lifestyle change initiatives. It must include earlier diagnosis (which currently takes an average of 9.5 years), access to psychological therapies, regular medication reviews, and structured self-management education. These elements should be core components of any effective prevention strategy.
We also welcome the Plan’s investment in mental health emergency departments and the expansion of support in schools and colleges. However, for these services to be effective for people with bipolar, staff must be trained to understand the condition and to recognise early warning signs.
In educational settings, this means equipping staff to identify undiagnosed bipolar in young people and creating clear pathways to specialist support.
In emergency settings, it means ensuring clinical staff are prepared to respond appropriately to the specific - and sometimes complex - needs of those in bipolar crisis.
Finally, we welcome the Plan’s stated intention to 'partner with a range of charities to deliver new, formal support that helps people with a new diagnosis manage their condition and live their lives.'
As the national charity dedicated to supporting people with bipolar, Bipolar UK is well placed to contribute to this goal through our peer support groups and self-management programmes.
We stand ready to partner with government and the NHS to help deliver the Plan’s ambitions - ensuring that people with bipolar are no longer overlooked in national health strategies.