I blogged several years ago about my experience of training as a Mental Health First Aider. Since then, I’ve lobbied and worked to bring equal parity of esteem to mental and physical first aid. So I was keen to read the first Impact Report from Mental Health First Aid England: does MHFA really work? The […]
Chuka’s first parliamentary question as a Lib Dem
Chuka Umunna is no stranger to holding the government to account. He spent four years opposing the Business Secretary, one Vincent Cable. The effect of that seems to have been the formation of a close friendship. Today he asked his first question as a Lib Dem on a touchstone liberal issue – the benefits of […]
12 June 2019 – the overnight press release
Missed waiting time targets put lives at risk Responding to a report conducted by the Public Accounts Committee which concludes that the failure to meet waiting time targets is putting lives at risk, PAC member and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said: This report provides a vital contribution at a time when the Government is […]
It’s time we talked about legalising drugs
There is currently much noise around the (unsurprising) news that a senior politician, who was once a journalist, spending much time in a large city in the UK, has taken drugs during his life – we’re taking illicit drugs here, cocaine, in Mr Gove’s case. Despite some moral outrage, there has been a surprising shift […]
The NHS is not for sale
If you had still had any illusions that our NHS would survive Brexit, these will have been dispelled by the statement of Trump’s ambassador that, “The US will want business access to the NHS in any trade deal”. Indeed, some have speculated that access to the NHS, along with the rest of the economy, is […]
What would we do without the NHS?
Our family has used the NHS more this year than ever before – all five of us have seen consultants for a range of ailments. Yesterday my husband saw the Haematology team to be told his cancer was in remission. We left the hospital grateful for the good prognosis, and thankful that we lived in […]
LibLink: Christine Jardine We all deserve the same quality of mental health care as my late husband
Christine Jardine’s column is a bit different this week. She writes about how her late husband, Calum, was affected by Bipolar Disorder. Calum Macdonald was a brilliant journalist, working for the Herald in Glasgow for many years. Although they were separated at the time of his death from a heart attack during the 2017 election […]
Mental Health Awareness Week 2019 #EmpowerHalfHour
The Where’s Your Head At? campaign launched a Workplace Manifesto on Monday. As part of Mental Health Awareness Week 2019, this campaign is raising awareness of how employers and businesses can better support their employees’ mental health and well-being. It is a straightforward manifesto which the campaign is calling all employers to sign. The principals, […]
Great news that the Mental Capacity Bill is set to pass final stages
I have been watching the progress of the Mental Capacity Bill closely. One of the reasons I, and many activists I’m sure, became involved in politics was because of our concern over mental health, the marginalised, and mental capacity issues. Indeed, my other half researches in this area, so I have an in-house expert on […]
When it comes to mental health, all’s fair in love and leafleting
We all feel it. Brexit is a battleground. It’s muddy trenches that stink to high heaven whichever side of it you’re on, and like sticky quicksand it’s near impossible to escape. What’s more, the confrontational atmosphere is contributing to a mental health crisis in our political system, one that needs addressing fast. For someone used […]