Yesterday was an important day for anyone concerned about the state of mental health care in this country. It was also an important day for me as not only did I find myself agreeing with Nick for the fourth time in a fortnight (scary but true) but I could applaud a coalition policy.

Just over a year ago I lost my younger sister Sarah, who was suffering from schizo affective disorder.  As a family we had grown up with a bi-polar father at a time when so few of us, or the wider population, understood the condition. With my sister we understood more, but were only too aware of how little others did. I haven’t written about Sarah yet as it is still too painful – that is a story for another day. But, I have always taken a particular interest in mental health and bringing mental health services up to the standard of the rest of the health service. Even for someone like me (who is not particularly afraid to challenge), my interaction with the services has been horrendously frustrating and myself and my family nearly always felt as if we were being totally ignored. Getting anyone to do anything was like constantly banging your head against a brick wall, exhausting, frustrating and painful.

And the situation for young adults has been totally unacceptable. As a youth worker I once had a young man who I was working with turn up at my office with rope burn marks round his neck – he had tried to hang himself. I immediately took him to the local hospital but he was treated as an adult, exposed to people with serious mental health problems and was terrified. Ironically he later ended up in prison and said that was the first time his mental health problems were taken seriously.

So the launch of Closing the Gap yesterday reminds me and should remind us all, why we are Liberal Democrats. These are the kind of changes for the most vulnerable and neglected members of our society we all want to see. These are the kind of changes that for many will mean the difference between recovery and sickness, success and failure, hope and despair, life and death. The commitment to instigate root and branch reforms will not only change lives but will also contribute to that freer and fairer society we are all committed to achieving.

I am truly proud of Norman Lamb (who wrote about this on yesterday’s LDV). 5 years ago I summated on his Mental Health motion, seeing so much of what was passed that day reflected in this policy is one of the most heartening moments of the last few years for me. I am particularly pleased to see recognition of the particular problems faced by young people in accessing appropriate services. Young Minds yesterday published a poll of young people which found that 1/3 of them didn’t know where to turn for help when they feel depressed or anxious. And  recognition of the needs of carers and families is also welcome, all too often we are treated as an afterthought.

A commitment to look at the mental health needs of offenders immediately they come into contact with the authorities is so important, with 9 out of 10 prisoners suffering from a mental health condition; for too long this issue has been ignored.

There is much more in the report which is ground breaking, with the potential to make a huge difference. The challenge now is to see it implemented. That is a challenge I know Norman Lamb will relish.

* Linda Jack is a former youth worker and member of the party's Federal Policy Committee.