The Conservative Party launched their manifesto today, Thursday 18 May, with several mental health pledges including:
“We will continue to rectify the injustice suffered by those with mental health problems, by ensuring that they get the care and support they deserve. So we will make sure there is more support in every part of the country by recruiting up to 10,000 more mental health professionals.”
“We shall require all our medical staff to have a deeper understanding of mental health and all trainees will get a chance to experience working in mental health disciplines; we shall ensure medical exams better reflect the importance of this area.”
“We will make the UK the leading research and technology economy in the world for mental health, bringing together public, private and charitable investment.”
BACP asked all parties that research funding should be proportionate to the burden of disease relating to mental health problems in the UK.
In line with mental health commitments made in January 2017, the Conservatives have promised to publish a green paper on young people’s mental health before the end of this year, introduce mental health first aid training for teachers in every primary and secondary school by the end of the parliament, and ensure that every school has a single point of contact with mental health services.
Additionally, they will consider the findings of the Stevenson-Farmer Review into workplace mental health support, working with employers to encourage new products and incentives to improve the mental health and wellbeing support available to their employees. BACP’s ask of all parties was that all employees should have access to workplace counselling, giving both support to employees and reducing costs to businesses.
We will continue to update you when further manifestos are launched.