Column: We have been badly let down when it comes to mental health services in area

Coun Jo White, deputy leader of Bassetlaw DC and Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Bassetlaw.

Last year, I asked local people about their experiences of using local mental health services, and this is what I heard, writes Coun Jo White, deputy leader of Bassetlaw District Council and Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Bassetlaw.

“Struggled to get help from CAMHS for my daughter for 18 months. I had to keep on at them for support, all the while my daughter got worse.

"I feel I was only taken seriously when I put a complaint in. I feel it's a reactive service rather than proactive service. But I do want to say we have seen some good people within CAMHS. I don't think there is anywhere near enough funding or staff in the mental health service.”

“Great up until they moved away from BDGH....bad decision, not in the interest of the patients”

“Year and a half wait. Poor to wait so long. Service, once engaged, excellent.”

While people told me they had received an excellent service, 55 per cent of people responding to my survey said their experience had been poor to reasonable.

We all want and hope for the very best treatment from our NHS, but the four-week standard for community-based mental health, first announced in July 2021, has still to be implemented and there have been no additional funds available to tackle the ever-growing mental health waiting list.

We are being let down due to years of underinvestment, the huge number of staff vacancies and the complete lack of prioritisation of mental health treatment.

“The mental health crisis is one of the most urgent issues of our time”, writes Coun Jo White, deputy leader of Bassetlaw DC and Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Bassetlaw.

We have been badly let down. In Bassetlaw we have been further impacted by the decision to shift local health planning from Bassetlaw to a service that’s for the whole of Nottinghamshire.

This was a huge shift and a decision that was backed by the MP, taken during the pandemic when I feel we were all looking elsewhere.

Essentially, it means that resources and focused provision that we had for Bassetlaw have been marginalised with some critical services moved out of Bassetlaw.

The mental health crisis is one of the most urgent issues of our time. I want to see a mental health hub in each of our communities, access to support in our schools to stop mental health problems becoming a crisis and we desperately need to ensure that we have the staff to take on these responsibilities and to tackle the waiting lists.