As a mental health campaigner I see on a daily basis the hardships that so many of our fellow country men and women, children and young people suffer from because of the devastating effect of their mental health difficulties. These issues range from education, work, welfare to critticaly getting support from our NHS. One of the most constant worries brought up is that the government and politicians in general arnt coming together on the issue of mental health.
The continuum of mental health issues effecting people from all backgrounds is hard to see; this is why we all have a part to play to start improving mental health care and the lives of thousands of individuals across our country.
Westminster politics and unity are rarely mentioned in the same sentence or paragraph but without unity on mental health we can not start to make further positive progress.
Back in 2012 we saw Charles walker MP and Kevan Jones MP talk openly about their horrendous battles with mental Illness; both from different party's but unified by a critical issue that needed tackling; this saw the conception of a plan to help people suffering from mental illness.
We saw in 2014; specialist waiting time targets introduced for mental health; this came about by Liberal democrats, Conservatives and Labourites working together to achieve a positive solution to a complex issue.
The outstanding paper that outlined some fantastic aims to improve mental health care; put together by Norman Lamb MP and his colleague at the time Jeremy Hunt MP shows that we can work together and it really does produce results.
The ground breaking work they Jonny Mercer MP is doing to support veterans mental health matched with Luciana Berger's MP inspiring work on young people's mental health; imagine what we could do if two opposit ideals came together for the common goal of better mental health.
The results I have stated above have all been achieved by party's working together on this issue.
This sort of spirit needs to be revived in 2015. We can bring forward a skilful plan; made by mental health pioneers of all political stripes.
This plan can be made up of a comprehensive mix of ideas from further investment in CAMHS while living within our means; we can see more people with mental health issues getting back into work but with a more supportive, compassionate and thought out approach.
Tribal politics will never get the answer we need to tackle mental health.
This is our moment, our chance and our time to make create a top class mental health system that can benifit all; through positive unified change. We can only do this together; so sticking on message I encourage all Members of parliament, party activists and councillors to call time on the tribal Political culture that surrounds our politics and come together to save lives, create hope and create a fighting chance for every person who so cruelly suffers from a mental illness