From the BBC website
World Mental Health Day:
PM appoints suicide prevention minister
10 October 2018
A minister for suicide prevention has
been appointed in England by the prime minister as the government hosts the
first ever global mental health summit.
Theresa May said the appointment of
Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price to the new role will help tackle the stigma
surrounding suicide.
While suicide rates are falling,
4,500 people take their own lives every year.
The appointment comes as ministers
and officials from more than 50 countries assemble in London for the summit.
Wednesday's meeting - hosted by
Health Secretary Matt Hancock and attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
- coincides with World Mental Health Day.
The government has also promised more
support in schools, bringing in new mental health support teams and offering
help in measuring students' health, including their mental wellbeing.
Ms May said: "We can end the
stigma that has forced too many to suffer in silence and prevent the tragedy of
suicide taking too many lives."
Alongside the announcement, the prime
minister pledged £1.8m to the Samaritans so the charity can continue providing
its free helpline for the next four years.
Hannah Lewis - who campaigns for
improvements to mental health services having suffered from panic attacks,
anxiety and suicidal thoughts as a teenager - said that it can be a year before
someone who is referred for help actually begins treatment.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today
programme: "Mental health is known to deteriorate when you are left
without help, and you can only imagine how things got worse with me."
said her mental health issues dated back to when she was a child
Ms Lewis welcomed the government's
announcement - especially the proposals to bring more awareness of mental
health into schools - but she added: "More joined-up working at schools
and early intervention is great, but we need to make sure then there are
sufficient services to be signposted to."
Mrs Doyle-Price, who has been an MP
since 2010, will now become the minister for mental health, inequalities and
suicide prevention.
As health is devolved separately to
the UK's four nations, her role will include making sure each local area in
England has effective plans to stop unnecessary deaths and to look into how
technology could help identify those at risk.
2010
She said she understood the
"tragic, devastating and long-lasting" effect of suicide on families,
having met some of those bereaved.
"It's these people who need to
be at the heart of what we do," she added.
Manchester University's Prof Louis
Appleby, one of the country's leading experts on suicide, said having a
minister for suicide prevention would "open doors" and make it easier
to have conversations about the role such things as benefits and online
gambling have in suicidal people's lives.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said
the appointment would also help with getting support for mental illness on a
par with services for physical health.
"There is a long road to travel
to get there. This is not something you solve overnight," he said.
But others criticised the government's
record on mental health. Marjorie
Wallace, chief executive of mental health charity Sane, said there had not been
enough improvements to services since Mrs May pledged to tackle the issue two
years ago.
"While we applaud the intention
[of the announcement], it is striking that the UK should be hosting such a
summit when we hear daily about people left untreated due to a lack of nurses
and doctors," she said.
"The prime minister must examine
our own mental health system before addressing other countries."
No comments:
Post a Comment