Legal News
MPs Consider Concerns over Mental Health Services (8 September 2011)
Date: 08/09/2011
MPs have been listening to the concerns of mental health service users and their carers. Toby Perkins and Natascha Engel, Labour MPs for Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire respectively, visited a Rethink Mental Illness community service designed to support individuals with severe mental health problems. Concerns raised covered the treatment of individuals with mental health issues by local hospitals, the police force, and job centres. The MPs also heard that service users and their carers were worried that the benefits system was set up for physical, not mental health problems, and that GPs did not fully understand mental health issues.
Michael Crossley, a volunteer at Rethink in Chesterfield, hoped that the meeting would result in positive changes being made for individuals affected by mental health issues. Mr Crossley told MPs that he would favour the introduction of a dedicated mental health minister to ensure that those living with mental illness were represented in the House of Commons. Mr Perkins MP claimed that the opportunity to meet service users and their carers in order to hear their concerns was a valuable experience and intends to raise the issues highlighted.
Mental Health Law is highly specialised area in which Duncan Lewis has successfully operated for several years. The company is the UK’s largest provider of mental health legal aid services. Their team of mental health solicitors assist individuals suffering from mental health problems who are being compulsorily detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. Appointments can be arranged at any hospital at short notice; the team can assist clients from anywhere in the country.