Backbench business
Debate between Jackie Doyle-Price and Caroline Nokes(11 years, 9 months ago)
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Caroline Nokes
My hon. Friend makes an important point about the mortality rates, compared with those for other mental illnesses. In this place, we have made great strides in being far more open and willing to discuss mental illness. This illness is hidden, and has not received priority or generated the attention that it so desperately deserves. It is incumbent on all of us to ensure that the Minister, who I am sure is listening, gets that message loud and clear.
Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)
Whenever we approach a public health concern such as this, one of the biggest things we have to do is educate the public. The media are an important partner in that. Does my hon. Friend agree that the media’s obsession with the cult of celebrity, and the focus on that, is holding us back on a significant public health issue?
Caroline Nokes
The hon. Lady makes exactly the point that I am coming on to: it is critical that when sufferers feel that they can reach out for help and acknowledge that they have a problem, the help is there for them. A delay of six to nine months can be dangerous—or, indeed, fatal.
Jackie Doyle-Price
Is my hon. Friend satisfied with the level of knowledge among medical professionals? Is there a job to be done in raising awareness of what they should be doing and of the signs that they should be looking for among sufferers of these disorders?
Caroline Nokes
I have been struck by the number of times that relatives of sufferers have contacted me to make the point that their family member was slow to get a diagnosis, or to say that the GP dismissed the eating disorder as nothing more than a teenager being a bit fussy about their food. It is critical to raise awareness, not only among the wider community and the media, but among our general practitioners, because we need these disorders to be identified earlier so that damage to growing bodies, in the instance of young people, does not become permanent.