Austerity and a malign benefits regime are profoundly damaging mental health
442 psychotherapists, counsellors and academics condemn government plans and call on Labour and other parties to denounce anti-therapeutic practices
Manchester celebrities Shaun Ryder, Terry Christian, Rowetta and Claire Mooney are to lead hundreds of protesters in a rally against ‘appalling’ coalition cuts that have affected the city.
The Mancunian icons will lead crowds in what they are calling a ‘smart rally’— an emulation of the pro democracy demonstrations that took place in Hong Kong back in September 2014.
YOUNG people in Hull are falling victim to the Government’s failure to provide sufficient in-patient mental health services in Hull, says MP Alan Johnson.
‘People are dying!’ Oldham MP’
Oldham MP Debbie Abrahams has sensationally accused the Government of contributing to the deaths of vulnerable people due to sanctioning benefit claims in order to improve figures.
The Oldham East and Saddleworth constituent publicly lambasted the secretary of state for work and pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, at a Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) Select Committee yesterday.
Mental health services are being “starved of resources”
A mental health commission led by former health minister Paul Burstow MP, which included representatives of the NHS, charities and Royal College of Psychiatrists, found mental health is underfunded by about 10% or £10bn.
“People who are in need of psychiatric admission should have the right to be treated in a local hospital”
A mental health service has said it is being forced to send patients almost 200 miles away for treatment because it is struggling to meet demand for beds.
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust said it operates at 100% capacity for a majority of the time.
It said beds will “always be found” in an emergency, but patients have been sent as far as Brighton and Carlisle.
RALLY COME & JOIN US: MUN GIVES SUPPORT TO STAND AGAINST ANTI SEMITISM
Anti Semitism is at an all time high.
Rally in solidarity with UKJews
Declare your pride in Judaism. r
There will be big name speakers from both within and from outside
the Jewish community at the rally, including:
Rt Hon Jim Murphy MP – Shadow Secretary of State for International Development
Ivan Lewis MP – Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Henry Ferster – Holocaust Survivor
Jonathan Arkush – Vice President, Board of Deputies
Rabbi Daniel Walker – Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation
Rabbi Amir Ellituv – Sha’are Hayim Sephardi Congregation, Hale
BRING YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY AND SHOW
HOW PROUD WE ARE TO BE JEWISH
The head of Unison has urged NHS staff to ‘keep on fighting’ after six different unions in Manchester took part in the first nationwide health service walkout for 32 years.
The strike was triggered by the coalition government’s decision to refuse NHS staff the 1% pay rise recommended by an independent pay review body and sparked further outrage after the proposal to award MPs a 9% pay rise earlier this year.
Children and young people’s mental health services are too few, too poor and too stressed, causing untold suffering to children and their families. There are government inquiries, reviews and a new taskforce under way to address the issues, but what would services look like if they were working well?
Young people’s mental health services would be embedded in the heart of communities. This doesn’t mean ivory towers with big signs on the front of the building saying “mental health services” (we know how mental health stigma builds walls for young people who need help), but places that are young people-friendly, informal and welcoming.
A report this week was grim reading for those involved in mental health care. The survey of GPs revealed that one in five had seen patients harmed as a result of “delays or a lack of support” from mental health services, while shortfalls had forced 82 per cent of doctors to act “outside of their competence”. While this news is shocking, it is just another example of the UK’s mental health care crisis.
Just last week, data obtained from freedom of information requests led to claims that the NHS treated mental health care as a “second-class service”. Indeed, thousands of mentally ill patients have been forced to travel “hundreds of miles” for treatment in recent years. Extreme cases have seen patients being forcibly sectioned so that they can receive care in overcrowded wards. Even medical students have resorted to asking for greater teaching on psychiatry, highlighting the derisory attention that mental health issues receive. Yet the state of mental health services is unsurprising considering that they receive only 13 per cent of the NHS budget, despite mental illness affecting around a quarter of the UK population.
