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| The crisis continues in our Suffolk Health Service and the impact is becoming more widespread by the week. |
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| This is particularly true for those working in the local Health Service who witness every day the damage that is being caused by funding cutbacks. |
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| Cuts and closures are a tragedy. The Government tells us that more money than ever is being devoted to the NHS. We all want proper resourcing – but to the front line. Why do we hear of deficits and funding cuts? |
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| The latest potential victim of this is the Healthy Mind Centre, run by West Suffolk Mind charity, based in Bury St Edmunds. |
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| This Centre helps those with mental health issues to find their way back into employment. This is an invaluable service. It not only has a great social impact by revolutionising the lives of those involved providing them with a vital chance to get their lives back on track. It also has a great economic impact by helping those who would otherwise be trapped in welfare dependency where they do not want to be. |
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| Those who are too ill to work must, of course, receive our full support. But there are also a great many local people who want to get better and back into work. The NHS must do all it can to help them. |
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| Yet Mind now fears for the future of the Centre because of a funding shortage. |
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| After lottery funding expired, Suffolk County Council and the West Suffolk PCT did step in to provide interim funding for a few months but this is now coming to an end. |
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| The poor financial situation the PCT are now in means further funding is not guaranteed. |
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| I will be doing all I can to support this Centre which is helping to support and encourage some of the most vulnerable in society. |
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| Tragically, mental health is too often neglected and its funding always seems too easily cut. |
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| We have seen in recent months the closure of services provided for those suffering from mental health problems, with the loss of the Old Fox House in Stowmarket a real tragedy for the many local people who relied on their support. |
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| Every family has at sometime been troubled by mental health issues. It is an issue that touches all families at one time or other. |
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| Thankfully, we live in a more open society than, say, fifty years ago. Mental health issues are more out in the open and we can discuss them without fear of prejudice. |
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| Now we have overcome the stigma that was once attached to mental health we must now ensure we provide sufficient support for those who are suffering. |
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