ABOUT one in four of us will suffer from a mental health issue during our lifetimes, writes Westmorland and Lonsdale MP and Liberal Democrat leader TIM FARRON. 

So, the chances are, most of you reading this will be aware of someone who is or has suffered from this illness, you may have even faced mental health issues yourself, and you know how frightening it can be and how vulnerable it makes you. 

What people in this situation need more than anything is stability and support, particularly from those they are closest to. In fact, without this support and understanding, their situation can deteriorate at a frightening speed as they become even more anxious and isolated.

That is why the proposal to close the Kentmere Ward at Westmorland General Hospital is quite simply wrong. The Kentmere Ward is the hospital’s specialist mental health ward, it is the place where people suffering from particularly acute mental health issues go when they are in the greatest need of treatment. 

I am really proud of the work that my party did when it was in coalition to raise the issue of mental health and I was pleased that this government decided to continue it and commit to bringing treatment given by the NHS in this field up to the same level as that given to physical health. 

However, perhaps our local health trusts didn’t receive this email as they are clearly heading in the opposite direction with the care that they provide us in South Lakeland. Mind you, making this announcement, as they did, during Mental Health Awareness Week, makes me wonder if they read anything. 

True, the ward has just received a critical report from the Care Quality Commission over the facilities it has and clearly there is work to be done to bring the ward up to the standards that patients needing treatment there should expect. 

But to propose instead that the ward should be closed entirely, leaving anyone needing treatment for mental health issues with a journey to Whitehaven or Carlisle or even Newcastle is about as uncaring as it is possible to be. However much someone’s friends or relatives might care about them and their illness, it is simply impractical to ask them to make a  two-hour journey to visit them. People do not have that amount of spare time.  The poor patient is going to become even more isolated with the really significant risk that their symptoms will get much worse. 

This proposal is one of the saddest and wrongheaded ones that I have heard from our local health trusts and one that I intend to fight very hard indeed. I have written to a number of government ministers to tell them of my concern and I have been in touch with the health trust bosses to demand they reconsider their decision. 

If you would like to support the campaign then please search “Tim Farron Mental Health” online and you will find links to our petition. The last time I looked we already had several thousand signatures but we need many more to really get through to these people.