Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland is today (28th October 2015) calling on the Tory Government to bring forward investment in mental health services.
Tom’s comments came following a report revealed that almost 60,000 people were in touch with mental health and learning disability services at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust in 2014/15 – an increase of 13%.
Tom said:
“These figures clearly show the extreme pressure that is being placed on mental health services across Teesside.
“The Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, need to do more than pay lip-service to this increasingly prominent issue and ensure that essential services are in place to help these people.
“In a Parliamentary Question I have already highlighted my concerns that the Department of Health has a shortfall of £107m short of its promised £250m target for investment this year in children’s mental health services. The response to that was the Government will be investing an additional £1.25 billion in mental health services over the next years. But for me that is too long. As these figures clearly show, we need that level of investment now.”