Claire Young
Main Page: Claire Young (Liberal Democrat - Thornbury and Yate) Community Mental Health Services
Claire Young Excerpts(1 day, 17 hours ago)
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Layla Moran
My hon. Friend has been a doughty campaigner on eating disorders for many, many years. We did not look specifically at eating disorders, but I know that some of the centres have that embedded. We know very well that if we are going to take a holistic approach to someone with severe mental illness, it is not just about the physical side or the housing; many of them suffer from other disorders or substance abuse. The key thing here is actually a simple principle: if we treat someone like a person, rather than a number that needs to go through a pathway like a pinball, we get better results. It is faster and cheaper, and we would have a workforce who feel that they are doing good, rather than feeling demoralised. It is win-win-win.
Claire Young (Thornbury and Yate) (LD)
On a similar note, does the Committee Chair agree that the long delays in assessing people for neurodivergence is contributing to greater mental ill health? While people are waiting, they are not being properly supported and do not feel that they have the necessary understanding of themselves to be able to move forward. Was that touched on in her work? If not, would she consider that for future investigation?
Layla Moran
We did a one-off report on that issue, in fact. It was not in this report, but we have looked at it. One of the key things here is good, local working with the wider community, which echoes some of what we have seen in this report. I know that many Members will have an interest in child and adolescent mental health services in this area. A forthcoming joint inquiry by the Health and Social Care Committee and the Education Committee will look at CAMHS, and no doubt some of the questions around neurodiversity will come into that as well. My hon. Friend is entirely right to point out this issue; it is a huge problem. I have one constituent who was told that they would have to wait 16 to 18 years for an assessment—I think that says it all.