Mental health up the agenda

"Let's take action and change lives" said See Me's Judith Robertson at the organisation's parliamentary reception last night. Around one in three GP appointments have a mental health component, the reception heard.

 The call to arms rounds off a week which has seen a lot of focus on mental health. This is in part thanks to new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who used Prime Minister's Questions to bring up the issue as one of his 'questions from the public' approach.

Over 1,000 people had asked him to bring up mental health services, Corbyn told David Cameron. The Prime Minister replied: “There are problems in some mental health services and it’s right that we make that commitment. But we will not have a strong NHS unless we have a strong economy.”

 As I wrote this week, falling back on the economy line was perhaps an indication that Cameron wasn't comfortable with the new approach.

Perhaps understandable, given research carried out for the MIND charity published this week showed the UK Government’s Work Programme is directly impacting people with mental health problems.

 “Cutting someone’s support for failing to meet certain requirements causes not just financial problems but a great deal of psychological distress too,” MIND chief executive Paul Farmer wrote on our sister site Politics Home.