Tristan Osborne

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I thank the many Members from across the Chamber for their contributions, and I particularly thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye (Helena Dollimore), who spoke about one of her constituents, Phoebe. This year’s World Mental Health Day theme is about the link between safe and healthy workplaces and safeguarding mental wellbeing, while unhealthy environments marked by stigma and harassment can harm it. Poor mental health not only affects individuals and their families but leads to reduced performance, absenteeism and high turnover rates. I therefore welcome the global campaign to challenge absenteeism and the impact of mental health. Across the world, 12 billion days are lost annually to these issues, costing the global economy $1 trillion. In my area, NHS Digital data and the House of Commons Library show that mental health provision is not sufficient. We see an increasing reliance on primary care services and an inability of secondary care services to deal with the increased pressures. Across the three key areas linked to diagnosis of depression, 17.3% of residents above the age of 60 in my constituency in Kent now have a diagnosis. Dementia is a rising challenge, with 24,000 people in Kent and Medway and nearly 1 million people in the UK experiencing it. As my colleagues have said, there are also concerns around mental health provision for young people, with 13,000 children and 14,000 adults waiting for neurodivergent condition tests, and ADHD and autism CAMHS referrals rising by some 600%. I welcome the Government’s commitment to mental health, both in the Darzi report and in updating the Mental Health Act 1983. Within that, will the Minister review how we invest in mental health care and infrastructure alongside the Darzi report, with the mental health investment standard for capital spending, and will he urgently reflect on how we effectively give hospitals extra support with other standards? Will he also consider how we can improve patient flow in hospital services, with support for initiatives such as Right Care, Right Person, which has been adopted by Kent police; specific and targeted mental health-related discharge packages with support and home care; and an expansion of psychological therapies for those with severe mental illness? Lastly, I welcome the intervention in schools with an increased provision of specialist mental health support. Can we also look at utilising other approaches to reduce waiting times for CAMHS, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye mentioned, and to reduce the stress on parents of navigating a special educational needs system that is not fit for purpose? The Government have made the necessary and correct interventions to improve our health services, but a long journey remains ahead.