Sussex Partnership praised in House of Commons mental health debate 15 June 2012
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- Last Updated on Monday, 18 June 2012 08:50
Sir Peter Bottomley, MP for Worthing West, highlighted the achievements of Sussex Partnership in a debate on mental health in the House of Commons.
He said, "When I was first elected, The Times and The Daily Telegraph would report debates and pick up a good point from everyone’s speech. If that happened after today’s debate, people’s understanding of the experiences of the lack of mental health, and of more extreme, occasionally disabling mental illness would become greater, deeper and wider. That would give comfort to the hundreds of thousands of people who care for people who are experiencing the lack of mental health.
"… I am not saying that we should all have to spend our time saying what our physical or mental experiences have been, but it does help if it is regarded as being as normal to talk about having had an episode of depression as of having had a basal carcinoma removed or having recovered from a broken hip.
"…I pay tribute to the hundreds of thousands of people who care for those experiencing the lack of mental health. I also pay tribute to the professionals, particularly to Lisa Rodrigues, who is chief executive of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. She has spoken of the services it provides across East Sussex, West Sussex, Brighton and Hove and Hampshire, and the 27,000 young people with whom she and her colleagues come into contact each year.
"... I once met someone who had had experience of schizophrenia. There was a fine mental health project just outside my former constituency, and he told me that he was glad to have got to know about it. He became a client of the project. Six months later, he became a volunteer. A year later he wrote to tell me that it was the proudest moment of his life, as he was now a taxpayer with a paid job. He was given the opportunity to take those steps forward, in an environment in which everyone knew what was happening and could share in it and give support when appropriate. Those opportunities matter."
Sir Peter highlighted Sussex Partnership's work on services for people living with dementia, services for children and young people, the importance of joined-up services across mental and physical health and the way that staff work flexibly to support people at all times of the day or night.
The House of Commons debate took place on 14 June to raise awareness of mental health issues. You can read the transcript, including Sir Peter Bottomley's speech in full, in Hansard, the official record of the House of Commons, here:
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