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As part of my former role as Shadow Minister for Mental Health, I worked very closely with Melanie Leahy and other campaigners affected by the terrible deaths in Essex mental health hospitals.
The Terms of Reference for the inquiry into this scandal have now at long last been published. This inquiry has been beset by delays since the beginning, which is simply not good enough.
Today, the Government have scrapped their pledge to reform the Mental Health Act.
More than six years of reports, campaigning and hard work has gone down the drain. Last year, I sat on the Joint Committee on the Draft Mental Health Bill. There was overwhelming cross-party support for reforming the Act. To this day, the Government has failed to respond to the committee's recommendations. Earlier this year, the Conservatives scrapped their own 10-year mental health plan. Dither, delay and failure is on form with the Tories' approach to tackling the crisis in mental health services. Black people are five times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act. The Tories have scrapped a once in a generation opportunity to tackle this burning injustice. Last month, I challenged the Health Minister to commit to reforming the Mental Health Act, her response was less than insightful. It is disappointing that the Tories continue to bury their heads in the sand and neglect mental health services. They are out of ideas and it's costing patients their lives. Only Labour can provide the transformation needed to improve services.
Police forces across England are set to stop attending many incidents concerning mental health under a new National Partnership Agreement: Right Care, Right Person.
The Government's announcement leaves far too many questions unanswered and fails to tackle the root problem of lengthy NHS waiting lists in mental health services. I have written to the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, asking him to come clean on what action he is taking to tackle mental health waiting lists. Read my full letter here:
All too often, children are stuck on long waiting lists for mental health treatment and thousands of people are having their referrals closed before an appointment.
This Tory Government caused the crisis in mental health services - when will they fix it?
Today, I appeared on BBC Question Time, where I held the Government to account on the shameful Rwanda policy, their neglect of the NHS, and the issues surrounding Thames Water.
For Pride month, Anneliese Dodds MP, Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary, and I brought together mental health and LGBT+ organisations to discuss the challenges facing the mental health of LGBT+ people.
Joining Billy Bragg’s ‘Left Field’ stage at Glastonbury, I spoke about the importance of protecting our NHS. It’s crucial that NHS staff are supported in their work and that patients can access timely treatment.
It was great to join Nish Kumar and Coco Khan on Pod Save the UK. We spoke about working on the frontline during the pandemic, Labour’s bold mental health plan, and pitying Matt Hancock.
See a clip of the Podcast here:
Today, I proudly led Labour's opposition debate on mental health and put forward our plan to transform mental health services across the country. It includes more staff, specialists in schools, hubs in communities, treatment within a month. Today, I called on the Health Secretary to get his act together on our failing mental health services. Across mental health services, children are being failed, police are spending hours waiting with children in crisis in A&E, staff are overworked are under-resourced. It's time for the Health Secretary to get a grip or get out of the way. |
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