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Key Issues

Mental health concern
The crisis continues in our Suffolk Health Service and the impact is becoming more widespread by the week. 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. 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? The latest potential victim of this is the Healthy Mind Centre, run by West Suffolk Mind charity, based in Bury St Edmunds. 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. 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. Yet Mind now fears for the future of the Centre because of a funding shortage. 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. The poor financial situation the PCT are now in means further funding is not guaranteed. 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. Tragically, mental health is too often neglected and its funding always seems too easily cut. 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. Every family has at sometime been troubled by mental health issues. It is an issue that touches all families at one time or other. 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. 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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