The Backbench debate on incorporating Mental Health First Aid into First Aid At Work legislation is scheduled to take place this morning in Parliament. The Government statement on this is here, with a debate pack pdf link at the bottom entitled, “Mental health first aid in the workplace”. One of the reasons I entered politics, […]
Op-eds
Parliament debates Mental Health First Aid
The Backbench debate on incorporating Mental Health First Aid into First Aid At Work legislation is scheduled to take place this morning in Parliament. The Government statement on this is here, with a debate pack pdf link at the bottom entitled, “Mental health first aid in the workplace”. One of the reasons I entered politics, […]
Not thin enough for treatment – Wera Hobhouse highlights stigma around eating disorders
In a parliamentary debate on Tuesday, Wera Hobhouse outlined how sufferers of eating disorders are being failed by health and support services. Lack of training can mean that doctors make things worse. She told the story of a young woman in her constituency who suffered for three years and never received the help that she […]
Every day should be Mental Health Awareness Day
We all have mental health, as we all have physical health. That is established. I welcome World Mental Health Awareness Day – it is great that we can celebrate and work together on better mental health for all. However, we need to recognise that fighting for good mental health provision and raising awareness is a […]
World Mental Health Day
It is World Mental Health Day. It is a time to celebrate how far we have come in the UK when it comes to talking about mental health. It is also the time to recognise the ongoing crisis and redouble our efforts. We have all seen the headlines – 1 in 4 of us will […]
A Basis for a National Health and Well-Being Policy?
The Frome Model of Enhanced Care is a GP focussed, community serving and using way of creating, assessing and delivering comprehensive health and well-being skills, services and attitudes, in, with and for a community, at a low to negative net cost. Its administration is remarkably inclusive, heterarchical or flat. It is so attractive that it […]
My view on our conference motion to end discrimination in mental health care
The problem with conference is that it is impossible to get to everything! I was hoping to speak on Sunday morning in our debate on the policy motion entitled, “Ending Discrimination In Mental Health Provision”. Regular readers of LDV know that mental health policy is an area I feel strongly about, so I am gutted […]
Demand Better: Liberal Democrat Priorities for a Better Britain
For as long as I’ve been active in politics people have complained they don’t know what we stand for. We may have a reasonable profile for our position on Brexit, but the fact that we’re only the fourth party in terms of MPs makes it even more difficult than usual to gain media attention. On […]
Vince Cable writes…We need to catch up with our European neighbours in fighting Cancer
Cancer is traumatising. It is universal, leaving no family untouched. I saw this first-hand. Cancer took my first wife, Olympia, in 2001. To repeat what I wrote in my memoirs, that experience showed me that whatever may be said in criticism of the NHS, the capacity of the system to deliver high quality, sophisticated treatment […]
Inequality in society harms our mental health – how can we fix it?
“Wealth is not a measure of worth. But low income is related to feelings of inferiority.” Across a range of countries, studies have shown, the experience of poverty leads to people believing they have failed themselves for being poor, and accepting that others feel like that about them. This is part of the remarkable findings […]