29.10.12
Miliband calls for same legal rights for mental health care
Mental illness will be described as the “biggest unaddressed health challenge of our age” in a speech by Labour leader Ed Miliband later.
He will set out plans to give patients the same legal right to mental health therapies a physical healthcare, mental health training for all staff and better integration of physical, mental and social healthcare.
Mental health issues cost UK business around £26bn and the NHS an extra £10bn a year.
Labour is also setting up a taskforce to draw up a strategic plan for mental health in society, chaired by the chairman of Barts Health NHS trust Stephen O’Brien.
Miliband will say: “One in four of us will have a mental illness at some point in our lifetime. There are so many people in Britain today who could be treated but who are intimidated from seeking help.
“For far too long our leading politicians have been far too silent about mental health, part of a taboo running across our society which infects both our culture and our politics.
“It is a taboo which not only blights the lives of millions but also puts severe strain on the funding of our NHS and threatens Britain's ability to pay our way in the world. It is a taboo which must be broken if we are to rebuild Britain as one nation.
“Just as we joined the fight against racism, against sexism and against homophobia, so we should join the fight against this form of intolerance. Too often governments have been stuck in a mindset that thought that physical health should always take priority - or that the answer to our health crises started and stopped with new government programmes.
“But good mental health doesn't start in hospital or the treatment room, it starts in our workplaces, our schools and our communities.
“So the task falls as much to organisations like the CBI as it does to the Royal College of Psychiatrists. In fact, everybody has a part to play. Only a nation acting together can overcome the challenge we face.”
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