Health Secretaries Unite Over Mental Health
All the former Health Secretaries over the past 20 years have united to sign a letter urging the government to make good on the former Prime Minister’s promise to give parity to mental and physical health. This is a hugely important issue, which I, and many other psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and counsellors have written about before. The understanding that there can be no good health without good mental health is a message that needs to be understood by those in the corridors of power. The stigma that mental health is somehow not important of less important than physical health cannot stand, as for those who suffer with mental health issues, often suffer for years without any respite or understanding from those who provide the care they desperately need.
When I first read about this letter, I thought this was a very good thing and it’s about time that mental health has proper advocacy. However, then I thought, that these were the health chiefs for the last two decades. Mental Health has been an issue for generations, why are these people only speaking up now? Whilst I believe that their speaking up is a very good thing in principle, the fact is that they should have all done more for mental health when they were in a position to do so. I hope that the pressure being placed on the government will pay off for those who suffer with mental health issues.
