To kick start Carer’s Week, North East Herts MP Oliver Heald was Guest Speaker at a democracy engagement convention held by mental health charity Rethink at Wesley’s Chapel in the East End of London. Oliver gave a speech to a hundred carers, service users with severe mental illness, volunteers and health professionals about the importance of voting and he gave advice on how mental health carers and service users could get their voices heard where it mattered.
Oliver, a former Conservative mental health spokesman, has been heavily involved in caring issues surrounding mental health as part of his work in the DWP select committee’s current inquiry into the Government’s carer’s strategy. The meeting covered the issues of discrimination, funding and contacting your local MP.
Oliver, along with Deputy London Mayor Richard Barnes and London Assembly Chairman Jennette Arnold, then answered questions from the carers and users.
One carer asked if the government was spending millions of pounds on mental health why her local PCT was cutting the amount of beds available to mental health patients?
Oliver replied saying, “A great problem with the way that mental health services are currently provided is that the funds are not ring-fenced, and subsequently too much of the money which is ostensibly spent on mental health, is all too often spent elsewhere or used to balance the books.”
Later Oliver commented, “The way that we as country treat mental health patients has changed greatly over the last few years, with great strides made. I am pleased to say that in general we now treat mental health sufferers with more understanding.
“One highly successful approach, which Rethink have successfully helped to pioneer, is the provision of work opportunities for those with mental health problems. The effect that genuine salaried employment, with appropriate skills’ training can have upon sufferers’ quality of life cannot be underestimated.”
Oliver has had a long history of working with mental health charities, his attendance at this event following a recent meeting with Rethink’s Campaigns Manager Victoria Walsh. After this meeting Oliver raised a number of important issues with senior government ministers, tackling such issues as legal representation for mental health sufferers