Helen Grant MP

The last time I spoke to Theresa May was in April last year when she visited Maidstone & Mid Kent Mind’s wellbeing centre in College Road. She showed a genuine interest in the work and challenges of the Mind team in helping those with mental health problems in the area.

It was therefore no surprise to me that her first major policy speech of the new year as PM announced new measures to transform the way we approach and deal with mental health in this country.

Around one in four people in the UK will experience a mental health problem at some point in their lives.

That means almost all of us will know someone who is suffering right now. More than 6,000 people in Maidstone and the Weald are registered as having depression and last year there were in excess of 8,500 referrals to ‘talking therapies’ in the West Kent clinical commissioning area.

The measures Mrs May announced this week are targeted at children, young people and sufferers in the workplace, and seek communitybased alternatives to hospital treatment alongside wide-scale expansion of online services.

These initiatives have been welcomed by the mental health community as vital steps, although the British Psychological Society say the acid test will be on the detail of how the government will deliver on these commitments.

If we are to see significant progress then public perceptions will also need to change. Widely held stereotypes link mental illness with dangerous and criminal behaviour.

This causes unjust discrimination which can exacerbate the condition, prolonging or even preventing recovery.

Help is available from some great charities; www.maidstonemind.org, www.mentalhealth-uk.org and www.time-to-change.org.uk to name but three.