The long awaited voice of the tory governments vision for mental health services has finally surfaced but many mental health campaigners are sceptical it can deliver.
David Cameron gave a speech on Monday about how to revolutionise mental health services in Britain and outlined his plans.
The following parts of mental health services will be invested in:
• He has pledge £247 million in funding to mental health services in Accident and Emergency departments.
• A promise that at least half of people in Britain experiencing Psychosis can be seen within two weeks.
• A £290 million investment so that 30,000 women can receive support before and after pregnancy, aiming to cut down the amount of deaths of people suffering post-natal depression.
All of this sounds fantastic and I believe this is a great step forward for mental health and a move towards further action but not everyone agrees.
I spoke to Labour activist Alex Cheney who told me "It is positive steps but I do not trust anything till I see action. £250 million was promised by the Tory Government in their March budget this year to help fix CAMHS, only £140 Million has been spent, that is just not good enough and nowhere near enough to fix the funding problems. Also none of this money is 'new' money it is being rejigged from other services and areas thus that will create its own problems. I am glad it is on the political agenda. But the reality is that today's announcements are too little too late and don't even scratch the surface of investment which is required."
There are others who are sceptical of the prime ministers statement, I spoke with a mental health nurse from Birmingham who said "This is simply not enough funding to even sustain the mental health services we have now and more investment needs to filter down sooner rather than later."
Though not everyone is sceptical of David Cameron's approach to mental health, Dave Chawner an up and coming comedian and former sufferer of Anorexia had this to say about the announcement "I think it's great! Any more money spent on mental health is brilliant. I think the comments that we need a more mature approach to mental health is bang on. For so long we have talked about changing things, but it is truly exciting to live in a time where we are changing. We are bringing up a generation who will be better able to emotionally regulate themselves and will think of Mental Health as such an obvious thing to talk about as technology and bank holidays. It is great to see the leader of the country leading the way and doing and not just talking.
So although many are sceptical it seems many mental health sufferers see this as a positive thing, more action needs to happen but the investment will see more people getting treated for mental health difficulties which will not just improve lives but also improve our society as a whole