Labour’s mental health reforms will give people their lives back, says Starmer
|
On a visit with new Labour MP Dan Poulter, Keir Starmer will
recommit a future Labour government to prioritising mental health
support. Labour will deliver 8,500 specially-trained mental health
staff, specialist mental health support in every school and an open
access early intervention hub in every community, paid for by
closing tax loopholes. As a Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Dan Poulter
has defected to join Labour and help get the NHS back on its feet,
which he says...Request free trial
On a visit with new Labour MP Dan Poulter, Keir Starmer will recommit a future Labour government to prioritising mental health support. Labour will deliver 8,500 specially-trained mental health staff, specialist mental health support in every school and an open access early intervention hub in every community, paid for by closing tax loopholes. As a Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Dan Poulter has defected to join Labour and help get the NHS back on its feet, which he says under the Tories has become “a service desperately struggling to deliver the care our patients deserve. Backing Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting's plans, he has said “the only cure is a Labour Government.” Labour has also promised to reform the Mental Health Act, a failure of reform the Tories have sat on since commissioning a report on how the act could be improved back in 2017. The news comes as Labour warns that hundreds of thousands of children and adults seeking mental health support are languishing on hidden waiting lists. The Party accuse the Conservative government of selectively presenting data to mask waiting times between referral and treatment. The latest data shows over 120,000 children waiting six months or longer, some for almost 5 years. The Labour leader has called these waits, “a scar on a civilised society”. Mental health experts are increasingly warning that long waits for treatment are leading to worse outcomes for patients and piling additional pressure on emergency services. Suicide rates have heartbreakingly soared since 2010, and the number of people being detained under the mental health act is also rising. Keir Starmer joined the ‘3 Dads' on a leg of their fundraising walk in Durham on Friday. Since tragically losing their daughters to suicide, the three dads have been tirelessly campaigning since 2021. They urge urgent reforms to the way mental health is talked about and tackled. Starmer backs their calls. Earlier this month, Labour accused Rishi Sunak of “attempting to make mental ill-health another front in the culture wars” after the Prime Minister was heavily criticised for blaming a 'sick note' culture in the UK for increasing benefit use. In response to the Prime Minister's speech, the mental health charity Mind said mental health services were “at breaking point” and branded the Sunak's comments as “harmful” and “inaccurate”. Keir Starmer MP, Leader of the Labour Party, said: "I will not sit on my hands while tens of thousands of people have their lives on hold and ambition curtailed while they languish on mental health waiting lists. “My Labour government will inject resource and reform into NHS mental health services to not just turn around the shocking figures and give people their lives back, but to completely overhaul the way our country approaches mental health. “We are mission focused on rebuilding public services and it's fantastic that Dr Dan Poulter MP has joined us. “It's time to end the chaos, turn the page, and get Britain's future back.” Ends Notes:
Data Tables
Source: NHS England - Waiting times for children and young people's mental health services, 2022-23 * Data covers reporting period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. The NHS published this in March 2024. **Mean waiting time recorded as 1704 days.
Source: House of Commons Library Regional data sourced from the following data tables: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06988/mental-health-statistics-underlying-tables.xlsx
Latest data from the ONS shows the overall suicide rate continues to rise: Deaths caused by suicide by quarter in England - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) Note: Suicide rates are based on the year of death registration. Because of registration delays, many of the deaths registered in a single year will have occurred in previous years, so there is some uncertainty in the annual figures.
|