6. 5. Statement: ‘Together for Mental Health’

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:36 pm on 11 October 2016.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 4:36, 11 October 2016

Yes, I do. We’ve made significant progress on school counselling, in fact, and I’m pleased to see that there’s some recognition both of the importance of it and support for the difficult choices that local authorities and headteachers will have to make about their budget lines, as we face significant challenge over public expenditure generally. But, you make an important point about middle-aged men in particular and suicide risk, and there is this point again about different actors being prepared to stand up and say that they face challenges themselves and to describe how they got through it. What’s been really interesting, actually, is not just veterans talking about it, but often serving emergency services personnel as well, who’ve talked about the challenges they’ve had and how they got through them. So, there’s a wide range of different people who recognise that they’ve got a role in improvement across the country. We have a responsibility as the Government, and the NHS does as well, but actually a greater number of actors taking part in challenging stigma and discrimination will also help, I think, to improve the outcomes of people who really do reach out for support when they most need it.