One of my more useful roles as MP is being patron and supporter for local charities.
I am involved in a dozen and last weekend helped to raise funds for a new one: Changez, which subsidises alternative treatments, like psycho therapy, for those with mental stress or illness.
Mental illness is a massive but largely submerged problem. A high proportion of long term unemployed and disabled people have a mental rather than physical condition. Enormous numbers of prisoners, perhaps a majority, have some form of mental illness. But it is not sufficiently acute for them to be sectioned or is not recognised or is combined with alcohol or drug dependency.
Most families struggle with the problem. In my case it was my mother who succumbed to a breakdown and was hospitalised when I was a child. There are large numbers who experience eating disorders or who harm themselves or suffer various kinds of phobias which prevent them living ordinary lives.
Many struggle on without help. Those who seek remedies in the NHS will find that specialist advice or treatment takes a long time to organise even if it is available. Mental health has long been the Cinderella of the NHS. And most GP’s, however good, are not mental health specialists.
There are also different views about what works. Psycho therapy – talking treatments – competes with drugs, with hypnosis, with aqua puncture. Those who can afford treatment go private and there is a flourishing commercial industry. But many cannot afford £50 to £100 an hour: hence the need for financial help.
It will always be possible to raise money for the big medical charities – cancer research or heart disease. I support them. But therapy for mental illness deserves support too.
