Youth mental health and wellbeing strategy to be devised in city
COUNCILLOR WARNS YEAR-ON-YEAR SERVICES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ‘NOT GOOD ENOUGH’
A NEW strategy is being devised to address mental health in young people in Coventry, but a leading city councillor has warned progress to tackle known issues has so far not been good enough.
Young people’s mental health and wellbeing is among the targets of a new strategy drafted for 2019-2023.
Coventry City Council and Public Health representatives aim to develop a “comprehensive approach” which focuses on early intervention, a cabinet meeting was told on Tuesday, October 29.
But councillors have raised concern that issues regarding mental health almost a decade ago are still being raised today.
According to Coventry and Warwickshire Children and Young People’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Transformation
Plan 2015-2020, children’s mental health problems are four times more common in the poorest income households than the highest, especially amongst boys.
A report to Tuesday’s meeting said “long waiting lists and a lack of access to specialist and urgent care are key concerns locally”, adding “there are known pressures on acute child and adolescent mental health services” at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire.
Cllr Pat Hetherton said: “As a council we are doing as much as we can and we should be commended.
“What is so disappointing and unforgivable is way back when I became a councillor in 2011 I sat on the health scrutiny board and it came out about the state of our children’s mental health services.
“It has never gone away, here we are years later, the same problem, austerity takes its toll but this is so not good enough.
“In actual fact, children with mental health are marginalised and not treated the same as people with physical problems and that’s unacceptable.
“Clearly something has to be done and it’s not good enough to say year-after-year that ‘oh gosh, isn’t it still in a state.’”
Other key targets of the new health and wellbeing strategy include tackling loneliness and social isolation.
An executive group made up of charity Grapevine, Public Health, Coventry City Council’s director of adult services, and cabinet member for adult services Cllr Mal Mutton will lead the drive.
A key priority is to strengthen support networks within communities so that older residents are stronger and more self-sufficient. Cabinet member for public health and sport Kamran Caan added: “Clearly if you look at the impact on isolation, it’s the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day that’s the kind of health damage that can be caused.”
Other ambitions in the strategy include helping people stay healthier for longer, motivating children to fulfil their potential, and supporting communities to be safe and sustainable.
Recent data has shown that men living in some parts of the city can expect to live up to 10 years longer than those in other areas of Coventry; while the gap for females is eight years.
A partnership including the council, West Midlands Police, West Midlands Fire Service, local health organisations and trusts and local universities have worked on the strategy, with Cllr Khan adding he hopes it can help make a “tangible difference in the next 12 to 18 months”.
Clearly something has to be done and it’s not good enough to say year-after-year that ‘oh gosh, isn’t it still in a state’
Cllr Pat Hetherton