THE latest plans to reform mental health services have received a mixed response in south Cumbria, with campaigners saying action is needed not more promises.

Prime minister Theresa May revealed new measures today to tackle the "hidden injustice" of mental illness.

These included plans to roll-out mental health first aid training to all secondary schools in England within three years, review child and adolescent mental health services, and grant an extra £15m towards community care.

READ MORE: Pledge to transform autism assessments in Cumbria as new report highlights system in tatters

Criticism has, however, been made against the government's latest proposals, with some commentators slamming the slow progress of service improvement and saying many funding commitments being discussed had already been announced.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted the £1bn already earmarked for mental health services in February was not yet fully filtering through the system.

In south Cumbria, many mental health groups welcomed Theresa May's new focus but warned the issue needed significant investment, both financially and practically.


Stephen Turner, a former mental health service user. Stephen Turner, from Barrow, experienced many mental health issues when he was younger, including anxiety and agoraphobia, and is now a Time for Change ambassador, touring groups and colleges as a guest speaker on the subject.

He said: "There's no point in throwing money at things and hoping to solve it within 12 months.

"With mental health it's often a case of dribs and drabs and you are getting people fighting for services.

"I hope there is continuous support where everybody learns from one another and shares ideas.

"When you are at school there are so many issues that hit the young that maybe people don't talk about and we have become ignorant and from this ignorance we have this stigma.

"Thirty-five years I've been going to meetings and we are still waiting for a lot of these promises and they never happen."

The new proposals

- A review led by the Care Quality Commission on child and adolescent services across the country;

- A further £15m to provide alternatives to hospital and A&E visits, such as crisis cafes and community clinics;

- An expansion of digital services to allow symptom checks before getting a face-to-face appointment;

- Mental health first aid training to be offered to every secondary school;

- Trials to improve links between schools and NHS specialist staff;

- A review on improving support in the workplace led by Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, and mental health campaigner Lord Dennis Stevenson;

- A review of the 'health debt form' which costs patients £300 from their GP for documentation to prove they have mental health issues.

'No time to lose'

The Evening Mail launched its Healthy Young Minds initiative in September 2015 on the back of escalating waiting lists for south Cumbria children needing psychiatric and emotional support.

Very often the charity sector is stepping in to supplement or solve cases of long delays for youngsters, with one of those groups in Barrow being Self-harm Awareness For All Cumbria.


Cindy Daltioni, SAFA chief executive. Cindy Daltioni, chief executive officer, said: "We are delighted that we are taking action to improve this mental health provision but my immediate reaction is people in Cumbria need the reassurance that the service will improve in the immediate future. There's no time to lose.

"It feels like a good starting point for Theresa May to come out and make the statement but a lot of people say things. We have had a lot of promises and we don't see action.

"We have been here 10 years and all this time there has been a failing system.

"We at SAFA would like accountability and transparency and we want to see a three-month action plan."

SAFA saw 316 clients in 2015/16 for issues involving self-harm and eating disorders, up from 232.

Speaking about plans to train teachers and school staff with mental health first aid, Mrs Daltioni said: "We are 100 per cent for them to all have mental health first aid training but we wouldn't expect schools to do nursing.

"We wouldn't expect them to plaster somebody's leg but that's what it feels like they would be doing with mental health.

"They are struggling already and yet we are saying we would like teachers to do more. We don't need another signposting service. We need action."

Early intervention is critical as figures show half of all problems start by the age of 14 and three-quarters by the age of 18.

Liberal Democrat former health minister Norman Lamb, who backed the Evening Mail's Healthy Young Minds campaign, said Mrs May was reannouncing policies agreed under the coalition government.

He said: "This is a puny response to a burning injustice and an attempt to cover up for this government's failure to deliver on promised investment for children's mental health. Measures to improve mental health care in schools were already agreed during coalition, and the current government has failed to ensure the investment needed to implement them has got through.

"Much of the additional £1.4bn of funding secured for child mental health care is being diverted to prop up other services. This amounts to theft of money intended to improve the lives of vulnerable young people."


Karen Dobson, Mind in Furness chief officer Karen Dobson, chief officer of Mind in Furness, said: "Mind in Furness welcomes the news that Theresa May intends to place mental health high on the political agenda, we are glad to see that prevention is being seen as a crucial part of dealing with issues and fully support the emphasis on working in schools and workplaces.

"Our Meaningful Conversations project is aimed at identifying what makes a mentally healthy workplace and this has made us aware of the high incidences of stress and depression amongst people in work as well as those who aren't currently in the labour market, we welcome policy and initiatives that support everybody in our local communities, offers parity of esteem with physical health and that remind us that mental health is everybody’s business.

"This is particularly important in towns like Barrow and the surrounding area where health inequalities are a major issue, we support government initiatives that aim to challenge those inequalities."

What Theresa May said


Theresa May. "For too long mental illness has been something of a hidden injustice in our country, shrouded in a completely unacceptable stigma and dangerously disregarded as a secondary issue to physical health. Yet left unaddressed, it destroys lives, it separates people from each other and deepens the divisions within our society. Changing this goes right to the heart of our humanity; to the heart of the kind of country we are, the values we share, the attitudes we hold and our determination to come together and support each other.

"I want us to employ the power of government as a force for good to transform the way we deal with mental health problems right across society, and at every stage of life.

"What I am announcing are the first steps in our plan to transform the way we deal with mental illness in this country at every stage of a person's life: not in our hospitals, but in our classrooms, at work and in our communities.

"This starts with ensuring that children and young people get the help and support they need and deserve – because we know that mental illness too often starts in childhood and that when left untreated, can blight lives, and become entrenched.

"This is a historic opportunity to right a wrong, and give people deserving of compassion and support the attention and treatment they deserve. And for all of us to change the way we view mental illness so that striving to improve mental well-being is seen as just as natural, positive and good as striving to improve our physical well-being."

Mental health facts and figures

- One in four people experience mental health problems every year, and three-quarters of those receive no help.

- The cost of mental ill health to the economy, NHS and society has been put at £105bn a year.

- The leading cause of death for men aged 15 to 49 is suicide and a quarter of people who took their own life had been in contact with a health professional, usually their GP, in the last week before they died.

- As well as a rising suicide rate that peaked in 2014 at 4,882 deaths, the number of people being detained under the Mental Health Act is rising year on year.

- A survey of GPs by Pulse magazine showed 58 per cent of GPs say they have to diagnose child and adolescent mental health "above their level of competence" due to a deterioration in access to specialist services.

- Half of all mental health problems have been established by the age of 14, rising to 75 per cent by age 24.

- One in 10 children aged five to 16 has a diagnosable problem such as conduct disorder, anxiety, ADHD or depression.

SIGN THE HEALTHY YOUNG MINDS PETITION HERE