Tory modernisers are getting their heads round mental health Mind, the mental health charity, estimates that one in 10 patients waits longer than a year to receive psychological treatment, while those with other illnesses, such as cancer, are usually treated within a number of days. This means mentally ill patients can deteriorate further, ending up needing expensive crisis care. James Morris, the MP writing this particular report, hopes it will show voters that compassionate Conservatism is alive and well. The minister who covers this area, Norman Lamb, is a Liberal Democrat, and Labour tends to do a better job making loud noises about mental health. So the Conservatives need to work hard not to cede ground. "There's a serious economic rationale around this in terms of the cost to the NHS, as well as it being about promoting a more compassionate form of Conservatism," Morris says. He is also leading an all-party parliamentary inquiry into the parity of esteem. He is the chairman of this group, having taken over last year from fellow Tory Charles Walker, who famously told the Commons that his own struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder made him a "practising fruitcake." Other Conservatives, besides Morris and Walker, are becoming increasingly vocal about mental health, whether as a result of their own struggles or from having some prior expertise on the subject. And they want to see their party make the same level of noise as their opponents. The last Tory manifesto contained one small bullet point on treatment; Morris and his 2020 colleagues are ambitiously hoping for three in the 2015 document. The MPs will publish a report next month suggesting six areas that the Conservatives could pick their three manifesto pledges from. These are: early intervention; employment and how to help people with psychological conditions back into work; mental health in later life; the way the criminal justice system interacts with sufferers; access to psychological therapies; and crisis care. The 2020 group includes several members of the No 10 policy board as well as ministers. While this modernising manifesto work is entirely separate from the official manifesto, the representatives of the Downing Street brains trust working on the final document are hardly going to ignore a good idea handed to them on a plate. Or at least, they shouldn't. When mental illness accounts for nearly 14 per cent of NHS spending, and affects one in four people, it's hardly a niche issue to be squirrelled away in just a single bullet point.