Over the past few days Channel Four has been highlighting mental health with its #4goesmad series of programmes. With the aim of debunking the myths and stigma surrounding mental health, they are well worth a watch.

I watched both Ruby Wax and Jon Richardson programmes.  Both told powerful and compelling stories  of people coming to terms with their mental health and talking openly about it often for the first time. One such moment was when a successful chef told his restaurant staff that he had, quite recently, contemplated suicide. Getting this confession out into the open was a symbol of that man’s bravery and a sign that it’s good to talk about mental health.

In fact, talking about mental health in public is a step more and more people (and politicians are taking in order to bring mental health out into the open. I was very moved during a recent Parliamentary debate on mental health by the number of MPs willing to talk about their mental health. And it’s so important that this happens in every walk of life.

There are many shocking statistics on mental health – take the one that life expectancy for those with a mental disorder is on average 20 years less for men and 15 years less for women, for example. To put it bluntly, by not tackling mental health we are cutting people’s lives short.

But since our party has been in Government we have made great strides towards putting mental health right at the top of people’s agendas. It’s a policy area that many in our party are passionate about getting right, and we should be proud that in just 18 months we have:

•  Launched a national mental health strategy backed by a £400m investment in psychological therapies for one million adults,
• £32m into talking therapies for children and young people,
• Ensured that by next year, four million under-19s will have access to improved CAMHS,
• Secured Government funding for the successful nationwide Time to Change mental health campaign,
• Invested £7.2 million to ensure the best treatment possible for veterans with mental health problems.

Indeed, this week Nick Clegg and I announced the Government’s mental health implementation framework – not perhaps the sexiest sounding title for something full of really exciting stuff. Essentially it’s a ‘no excuses’ action plan  for employers, schools, businesses, housing organisations, voluntary groups, councils and the NHS. It’s all part of our effort to promote good mental health, parity of esteem with physical health and to banish stigma. And it’s starting to take effect. The evidence so far has shown that we have increased the number of people receiving treatment and reduced the number on sick pay and benefits – both a health and economic success.

Produced in partnership with the major mental health charities, NHS confederation and crucially with service users it is a genuine piece of co-production which we are all sign up to working together to deliver.

Ultimately, with Liberal Democrats taking the lead on this issue we are starting to see fewer excuses and more solutions for the one in four of us who will experience mental health issues at some point in our lives.

* Paul Burstow is Liberal Democrat candidate for Sutton and Cheam and was the MP until the dissolution of Parliament on 30th March.