Mental Health Care

Gloria De Piero Excerpts

Monday 21st November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Gloria De Piero (Ashfield) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr Walker) for allowing me to contribute to this debate. I also congratulate Mind on the work that it has done. Its report today reveals some harsh realities about how we deal with mental health in this country.

I have learned a lot about mental health care, or the lack of it, in the short time that I have been the MP for Ashfield. I have also learned about mental health through my own experiences because a family member has struggled with his battles. I will talk a little about that later.

It was not long after I became the MP for Ashfield that the Rokerfield day care centre was threatened with closure. I spoke to its users. One man told me that the day care centre was his family, that the other users were his siblings and that the staff were his parents. A woman told me that she would not be here if Rokerfield had not been there for her. I hope to goodness that she is still with us. Sadly, Rokerfield and many day care centres like it are no more.

Something else that I have learned about recently through this job is the serious shortage of beds in psychiatric wards and the struggle to get emergency treatment. I sat open-mouthed in a meeting the other week as I was told that a shortage of beds meant that patients who were seriously ill and needed to be admitted immediately sometimes had to be taken miles away. The process was explained to me. If there is no bed locally, they start making calls. With each call, the bed gets further away. Before they know it, they are talking about a bed 100 miles away. When I heard that, I felt sick.

I will briefly explain why that made me feel sick. A close relative of mine had many spells in a psychiatric ward. I made many visits to the ward. Each time was a trauma for my relative and for the family. I never once considered that he could have been taken miles away. The two bus rides and the long walk up the hill, sometimes in the winter months, were distressing enough for me. People do it for peace of mind and to show that their relative is loved. I have heard harrowing tales from Mind about patients who have been transferred from their local area by ambulance or police car because there were not enough local beds.

I will end by echoing the call by the inquiry for

“a culture of service and hospitality”.

I thank Mind for its work. The Minister has responded to the report by saying that he will work with Mind to improve services. We will keep him to his word.