Training to spot mental health issues

UP TO half-a-million people across the West Midlands could be given training in mental health first aid.

With mental health costing the region an estimated £12.5 billion a year through lost productivity, welfare support and use of emergency services, health bosses have drawn up a major plan to tackle the issue.

Led by Lib Dem MP and former care minister Norman Lamb, the West Midlands Thrive report recommends a series of actions for health services, councils, police and employers.

These include training 500,000 people over ten years in mental health first aid, a course designed for the public to help them identify and offer basic support to colleagues, family or anyone else with mental health problems.

The report follows almost a year of evidence gathering and investigation by the Mental Health Commission set up by the West Midlands Combined Authority. The commission included a jury of 14 people with mental health needs.

Jury member Holly Moyse said that she had at first been refused treatment for anorexia nervosa.

“Many of the jury received the same mistreatment I did, as well as other issues such as support back into work and housing difficulties,” she added.

She said that too many people “languish” between being too ill to get on with life but not ill enough for emergency treatment.