Tim Farron has written an article for the Huffington Post about his new report on youth mental health services.
He describes why and how his volunteer team produced the 127 page documents, motivated by the young people who came to his surgeries in desperate need of help:
There are then events that have a particularly profound and lasting effect on me – the deaths of young people who have struggled with mental health conditions. These tragic events and the circumstances surrounding them have brought to light serious flaws in the way in which we support our young people and the need for a fresh look at our local services. Improvements have to be made.
So I pulled together a team of experts and asked them to write an independent report. The subsequent report, ‘Born in South Lakeland – developing emotionally resilient children’, is the culmination of eight months work. I am immensely grateful to the review group – Glenys Marriott, John Asher and Zoe Butler – who gave up their time to produce this report on a voluntary basis.
They interviewed more than 200 people, ranging from people who use our local mental health services, their friends and family, to the doctors, nurses and support workers who help people in need. This is all documented in our 127 page report, which was launched last Tuesday and can be viewed here.
This launch by no means marks the end. It’s just the beginning. What we must do now is pursue the key recommendations detailed in the report – more tier 4 services mental health, central points of contact, help for the third sector, work in schools (especially on cyber and LGBT bullying), as well as a better integration of services – amongst other things.
Tim also highlights what Liberal Democrats have done to improve mental health. Not just the grandees, but Lee Dargue, who’s set up the Liberal Democrat Mental Health group too.
You can read the whole article which contains a link to the full report here.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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One Comment
I have far from been silent on this issue. As anyone who has seen my twitter posts and read my blog or viewed my suggestions on Manifesto 2015: I am a sufferer of mental illness and know all too well the stigma affects your depression further.
As a teacher before my breakdown (it wasn’t teaching that led to it) I was all too aware of many pupils with mental health issues not being addressed. Better services in schools are desperately needed: trained staff and a safe area where they can discuss their illness in confidence.
I had my first episode at 14 when my mother was sent to what was the local (20 miles from where we lived – and no car) mental hospital, the derogatory playground ‘joke’ that anyone doing something stupid was sent to ‘Knowle’. I had to keep the fact my mother was there a secret, buried inside me during the formative part of my GCEs, The stigma of mental illness was one of the horror movies. I buried it so deep that it was not until I was 40 I told even my closest friends. It was the start for my continuing episodes of The Black Dog.
I have seen that playgrounds haven’t changed that much , in fact as Tim rightly points out with cyber-bullying it is a stigma that remains in the ‘ether’ of the net forever. If we can as a party really push for a better service to give them the tools to be ’emotionally resilient’ – give them the hope that they are normal and that it is treatable, My personal view is the earlier the illness is treated given with their young age – the more effective and long lasting the treatment and recovery will become.
This is a subject that is very close to my heart. One I think I have some ‘knowledge on. The 4 tier service is a way forward and as Tim says is a beginning.