A minister for suicide prevention has been appointed in England by the prime minister as the government hosts the first ever global mental health summit.
Theresa May said the appointment of Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price to the new role will help tackle the stigma surrounding suicide.
While suicide rates are falling, 4,500 people take their own lives every year.
The appointment comes as ministers and officials from more than 50 countries assemble in London for the summit.
Wednesday’s meeting – hosted by Health Secretary Matt Hancock and attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – coincides with World Mental Health Day.
Ms May said: “We can end the stigma that has forced too many to suffer in silence and prevent the tragedy of suicide taking too many lives.”
Alongside the announcement, the prime minister pledged £1.8m to the Samaritans so the charity can continue providing its free helpline for the next four years.
Manchester University’s Prof Louis Appleby, one of the country’s leading experts on suicide, said it was an “important” move to have a minister for suicide prevention.
He said suicide was not just a health issue, but cut across numerous government departments.
He said having a minister would help “open doors” and make it easier to have conversations about suicide and the role of everything from benefits to online gambling.
But others criticised the government’s record on mental health.
Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of mental health charity Sane, said: “While we applaud the intention, it is striking that the UK should be hosting such a summit when we hear daily about people left untreated due to a lack of nurses and doctors.
“This failure of psychiatric services has huge social and economic implications.
“Two years ago, Theresa May announced a comprehensive plan to tackle the ‘hidden injustice’ of mental illness in our country, yet in recent weeks there have been disturbing reports that people are being detained in police cells for up to six days for the lack of NHS beds, children referred to specialist services being turned away and lives being damaged due to long waits to get treatment.
“The prime minister must examine our own mental health system before addressing other countries.”
Jackie Could you please ring Thurrock mental health crises team because I think your PR advisor is under stress.
“The Tories’ new suicide prevention minister joked about “jumping off Beachy Head” just four years ago, it has emerged.”
“But her Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, admitted the new minister doesn’t yet have a firm budget or target.”
I’ve got a bad feeling this is going to end badly. PR Stunt. On world mental health day as well.
You’ve got to admit it every time I think there is no meaning to life something like this happens and I relise there is a higher force out there. Whos a Fucking comedian 🙂 lol who loves people suffering.
The reason she got the job is half her constituents are mentally unwell as they tend to vote Labour.
That shows your total contempt for the mentally ill.
making out the rise in it is due to Labour rather than any effect of Tory austarity
I hate both ideologies but there are people like you who will play that kind of game defending a team no matter what it does.
Not a single criticism from you on whats gone on.
thurrocksgonedownhill – You’re a dick…like most Tories. Your attitude to people with mental health conditions is exactly why society is so degenerate.
Its you numbnut morons that make assumptions that make society degenerate.
My family have suffered from mental illness and members have been to Thurrock Mind for some time so we know all about it.
A lot of mental illness is brought about by all the weed smokers in the area….oh and the Labour Party.
As for Tory austerity CTB, if Labour didn’t spend, spend, spend we wouldn’t be in the shit so much. The Tories are just trying to balance the books.
Also there are lots of work shy parasites claiming mental health issues to avoid work. I know my neighbour is one of them.
assumptions no facts.
To be fair it was the US sub prime market under a conservative president it happened under.
Yes labour also did spend. So have the conservatives
Neither get any sympothy from me.
And the banks didnt take the hit unlike small business have had to under conservative individual responsibility.
Debt has doublled under the 8 years of conservatives each month they kept giving the banks more billions.
And the market problems is bigger now than it was in 2010. It will crash be it corporate debt or derivatives. Due partly further deregulation like the other week under Trump.
The difference between me and you is I criticise both Clowns be it Conservative or Labour for there failings.
assumptions?
I would like to see the independent
Statistics to back you up on the mental health are workshy and pot smoking and Labour Party. Not Austarity.
because the right seem to use that as a slogan and have been making them ideological claims for years.
I would also add I am sorry you have had a problem with mental health in your family.
But find it so strange you don’t criticize JDP for this
“The Tories’ new suicide prevention minister joked about “jumping off Beachy Head” just four years ago, it has emerged.”
Because it seems you are a Tory Drone.
I’ve added this to this thread from another post as I feel this is also linked to disability and mental health.
There was a number of good government schemes to get people into work like
Access to Work: ‘Scheme’s future in jeopardy through cuts
Wich gave employers
funding to make the reasonable adjustments for access.
and various Jobcentre training schemes also been cut.
Why they do this is so counter productive as it is better to have disabled people paying into the system than taking out.
I do voluntary work once a month with Blind and visually impaired people in thurrock and UK stats are now.
Only one in four registered blind or partially sighted people of working age is in employment.
This figure is even worse for people who are completely blind. Only around one in 10 people with poor functional vision is in paid employment.
There has been a significant decrease in the proportion of registered blind and partially sighted people of working age in any form of employment over the last decade from one in three in 2005 to around one in four in 2015.
This Conservative government ideology is to just make short term cuts rather than make short term investments in getting people into work for the long term who pay far more long term into the system.
I feel these people if not helped into employment will also be effected by mental health/suicide.
It will cost far more long term in any benefits or NHS costs than it would to help with schemes to get them into long term sustainable employment. Because the statistics are heading in the wrong direction for everyone.
As JDP, TGDH Rocket1, Myles Valen Cook….. all know me they know I have a visual impairment so its a sensitive passion for me to help them. JDP Please look into it.
Just to set the record straight CTB my friend. I am not a fan of JDP by any means, I am far from being a Tory, I have no problem with anyone genuinely on any form of benefits, after all, is that not what the system was set up for?
What I do have an issue with is sponging parasites milking the system, Labour making out they are the party of the people when it is they the screwed the country up every time the numbnuts vote them it…remember who shut Orsett Hospital, who imposed the Thames Gateway on us and more locally, my own dealings with the Labour Council in Thurrock have been one of obvious incompetence and corruption.
Thats not to say the Tories are any better.
I cannot fault that last post.
thurrocksgonedownhill – (response to comment made October 11, 2018 at 8:01 pm) Yet you continue to spout assumptions yourself about people who vote Labour, people with mental ill-health and a whole range of other issues.
Some of your family suffer mental ill-health? That makes your attitude to mental health even more puzzling and offensive because you should bloody well know better.
While there are a lot of weed smokers (I dislike them myself) you can’t lay all the blame on that habit for the amount of mental ill-health. How society treats people and how people treat each other within families, social groups and in the workplace are big contributors to mental ill-health. Genetics is also a contributor. It’s also incorrect to say that weed smoking is a cause of mental health issues when it can also be the way people with pre-existing mental health conditions self-medicate because they are suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness or the medication they are prescibed for their condition isn’t working. You are making statements that are as filled with assumptions and wrong thinking as ever and, as you say you have familial experience of mental ill-health and should therefore know better, making such statements is moronic at the very least and dangerous to the public understanding of mental health issues and their causes. Pretty pathetic, if you ask me.
And a final stab at Labour voters painting them as mentally unwell. It seems to me that the only reason you call Labour voters mentally ill is because you lack the fully formed arguments to otherwise attack people who vote Labour. While I’m as happy to sling mud as you are, I’d rather use arguments to win people over than just abuse. If my arguments are ignored despite being based on hard evidence then I’m happy to start hurling insults at the moronic, compassionless, ethically and morally challenged Tory voters.
I won’t even bother to comment on Tory austerity ’cause I think Catching the Bus has that handled already.
thurrocksgonedownhill – (response to comment made October 11, 2018 at 8:01 pm) I didn’t notice the final comment you made because of the shift of focus to austerity (you really should try to focus on one subject at a time) but I need to address that before I log off. You claim to have familial experience of mental ill-health and I won’t disbelieve you because I have no knowledge of you other than your seemingly endless ignorance of mental health issues but whatever knowledge you do have of mental health seems to be lacking any understanding of the wider issues involved with suffering from mental ill-health so I’ll educate you on the matter (just a little bit because I’d hate to hurt that tiny brain of yours).
You call your neighbour (and many other people) “work shy parasites claiming mental health issues to avoid work”. This shows, in your thinking, the same sin of making assumptions that you throw at others when they don’t agree with you and is something you really should make some effort to rectify. Mental illness affects people in different ways. There is a spectrum of functionality that every sufferer falls somewhere on. At the high end, sufferers can function in society very well to the point that they can socialise and you would never guess that they have any mental health problems. At the low end, sufferers can barely function, struggling to socialise, take care of themselves or even, in extreme cases, get out of bed. Most sufferers find themselves somewhere inbetween these two extremes and some can even fluctuate at different times due to internal or external influences. Just because you think someone is “claiming mental health issues to avoid work” doesn’t make you right, it just means your making an assumption on them based on your ignorance of mental health issues. This is not, however, just a mistake you make because even sufferers can sometimes make assumptions and this is due to the fact that everyone sufferers mental ill-health differently. You could have ten people in a room suffering from depression, for example, and while they all have the symptoms that come with a diagnosis of depression, each one will suffer those symptoms in varying degrees (either permanently or fluctuating) and may have symptoms that are purely specific to their psychological makeup, any co-existing mental health conditions and/or external influences. To continue with depression as our example, there are many different depressive illnesses, some of which are caused by stress from external influences and some which are mainly biological and internal in nature but they all have some symptoms in common, however, their treatment may differ. I will take myself as an example: I have been diagnosed with four depressive illnesses and two personality disorders. These different conditions combine in various ways that slide me along the functionality spectrum in unpredictable ways and the medications I take for both my mental and physical health problems cause further disruptions. One side effect was anxiety attacks and a number of my medications interact to increase the side effect of drowsiness. For a while I was able to manage all my symptoms to such a degree that I was able to function, both as an employed worker (until I became too mentally unwell) and as a student and voluntary worker. In 2014, circumstances made me too unwell to function very well in the outside world and I have remained at the lower end of the functionality spectrum but I have hopes that will change in the future. That’s how mental ill-health affects sufferers so don’t be a moron all your life and stop making assumptions about people. You need to talk to them and find out how their mental illness affects their daily life before you start making judgements and assumptions.
Now I have given you a small lesson in mental health awareness, I will log off and not return to this page. You will have either learnt something or not. You will continue to be a moron about mental health or not. That choice is up to you. However, I won’t bother discussing this with you again because bashing my head against a brick wall is bad for my mental health and right now I can feel my mind becoming clouded again and my concentration has reached its limits for today. I hope you change your attitude to the people with mental health issues but I won’t hold my breath.