Stockport Labour Group is calling on the Council to reverse planned cuts to mental health services which will see funding for a team of local support workers slashed.
The call coincides with a cross-party motion scheduled for the full meeting of Stockport Council on 3rd December, which includes a plea for mental health to be a local priority.
Councillor Tom McGee, Labour Group Chair of Health Scrutiny, said:
‘It is time for our Lib Dem Council to match their warm words with action to address the massive underfunding mental ill health receives compared to physical illness.
‘Councillor Keith Holloway, the Executive Member who is proposing this motion to place more of a focus on mental health, is the same person who has just decided to cut £140,000 out of the mental health budget.
‘The latest changes proposed by the Council and Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust see Stockport lose a Community Mental Health Team and 10 members of staff who work in mental health. Stockport needs real action on the underfunding of mental health services, not just gesture politics or window dressing.’
The motion asks the Council to ‘work with local partners to offer effective support for people with mental health needs’ and ‘support positive mental health in our local communities’ but Stockport Labour Group want to go further, working with local partners to ensure that mental ill health gets the parity of esteem it deserves with physical conditions.
Cllr McGee added:
‘One in four people will experience mental ill health, but for the most common illnesses, such as anxiety or depression, less than half of patients who seek help will actually receive any treatment.
‘Stockport needs to have a better strategy to maximise the impact of the resources which are available to the NHS, the Council and the voluntary sector, so that services are timely, effective and focused on prevention.’
Before May 2015 the Liberal Democrats had Ministers at the Department of Health. This period saw 3,600 fewer NHS nurses and 200 fewer NHS doctors working in mental health across England compared with the position in 2012.
Under Labour the right to mental health treatment will be enshrined in the NHS Constitution, there will be mental health training for all NHS staff, and mental health will be placed at the heart of the Labour vision for an integrated health and social care system.