News
Brown challenged over mental healthcare discrimination.
MP Mark Harper, challenged Gordon Brown during Prime Ministers question time yesterday over amendments to the current mental health act.
The shadow Minister for Disabled People questioned whether the Prime Minister would amend discriminatory provisions in the existing legislation.
Currently, under Section 141 of the mental Health Care Act 1983, an MP automatically loses their seat in Parliament if detained under the mental health care Act for a period of six months or more.
The Prime Minister said:
“Mental health is a serious problem and we should look at it with great care before we make any decisions”.
In contrast, there are no provisions to remove MPs suffering from physical illnesses which stop them from carrying out their duties and responsibilities for the same length of time.
In July 2008 a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health, supported by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and other mental health organisations, showed that one in five MPs have some personal experience of a mental health problem. But one in three said work-based stigma and the expectation of a hostile reaction from the media and public prevented them from being open about mental health issues.
The report, Mental Health in Parliament, called for the removal of Section 141 – a change which was backed by the majority of MPs surveyed.
To view the report click here.
£1 Million invested to train new therapists.
One million pounds is to be invested in the training of new therapists as part of the governments programme to Increase Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT)
The programme aims to provide 3,600 new therapists over the next three years who will be able to provide cognitive behaviour therapy for anxiety and depression.
The Charlie Waller Institute of Evidence Based Psychological Treatment, at the University of Reading, and Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust won the million pound contract to provide the training programme over the next two and a half years.
The IAPT initiative is aiming to increase the number of clinicians trained in proven treatment methods to 19 in the Reading area in the first year, a 200% increase. Therefore increasing the speed with which patients can be helped and improving the outcome and effectiveness of their treatment.
Professor Roz Shafran, co-Director at Charlie Waller Institute said:
NHS to face difficult financial times.
Further investment in mental health care seems unlikely as the NHS will be facing difficult financial times according to MP Robert Syms.
The Conservative acknowledged that mental health care does not get a high enough priority but in light of the major financial deficit the country faces it will be difficult to enhance services.
A member of the Health Select committee, Robert Syms said:
“We are going to live in very difficult economic circumstances; it may be a case of using smarter ways to make use of the money already there. The NHS is going to have a much more difficult time over the next 3-5 years.”
Mr Syms suggested delivering a health service to people in places such a sport and recreation facilities in order to reach men suffering from mental health problems.
The charity Mind also made similar recommendations during their ‘Get it off your chest’ campaign last month, targeting men suffering from mental health issues. The charity also recommended that the Government needs to produce a men’s mental health care strategy and invest in further training for health care workers to tackle the issues of men’s mental health
Redundancy rate set to slow.
The scale of job shedding is set to slow according to a recent Labour Market survey.
Job losses will not end for months to come and unemployment will continue to rise but not as dramatically as in the first quarter of 2009 say the UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
The survey found that proportion of US employers making cuts to their workforces has more than halved in the second quarter of 2009 compared to the first quarter, with the UK predicted to follow suit.
With conditions in the US jobs market foreshadowing what subsequently happens in the UK this may provide some comfort to UK workers fearful for their jobs.
Gerwyn Davis, CIPD Public Policy Adviser said:
“What’s now happening in the US jobs market offers hope that the rate of job losses in the UK will slow noticeably during the second half of this year. But we shouldn’t get carried away by talk of economic ‘green shoots’. The jobs market may be contracting at a slower pace but it is continuing to contract all the same, with unemployment of more than 3 million on the way as we head toward 2010.”