Women’s Mental Health

Nadine Dorries Excerpts

Thursday 3rd October 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ms Nadine Dorries)]

I hope everyone will concur that this debate has followed on in tone from yesterday’s debate on the Domestic Abuse Bill. I thank everybody for their contributions. I thank the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) for opening the debate. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Moor View (Johnny Mercer), who I understand originally secured the debate—when he took up his ministerial position, the hon. Member for Bath took the debate forward on his behalf, for which I thank her.

I give many thanks to my predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jackie Doyle-Price), who did a hugely commendable job when she held this position. I am determined to continue the work that she began—not least because I am sure she will be breathing over my right shoulder in every debate that I take part in. I wish to pick up on one of her comments, which fitted the tone of debate. She said that we should all share in this place the results of our own personal experiences. I was not going to mention why women’s mental health is so important to me, but that comment has sat on my shoulders since she made it—as have, indeed, the other brave contributions.

Women’s mental health, particularly perinatal depression, is incredibly important to me because a very close member of my family had perinatal depression and took her own life—and not only her own life but that of her baby and her two existing children. It was an act that has since reverberated through my family, and for many other people. Perinatal depression is incredibly important to me, as is this role, and that is why I take so seriously all aspects of my role but particularly women’s mental health.

Women have broken down barriers, not only in mental health but in this place. I remember well the time when a previous Madam Deputy Speaker was pregnant. She spent most of her time in the ladies’ room at the back because the fact that she was sat in the Chamber and was pregnant at the time was not quite appreciated. Times have changed and sharing our experiences has now become commonplace. I think that has helped to break down the barriers in here so that we can discuss issues that are so important to so many people.

[Andrew Griffiths (Burton) (Con)]

I thank the Minister for sharing her personal story with us. The more we hear from Members from all parties who have themselves suffered from poor mental health or whose families have felt the footprints of poor mental health, the more we will help to break down the stigma and the more we will show to people who are listening to this debate or watching on TV that it can happen to anybody. There is nothing to feel embarrassed about and there is nothing to be ashamed of. The most important thing we can all do is talk about our mental health.

[Ms Dorries]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: it is about breaking down the stigma in mental health. When somebody breaks their leg, they wear a plaster cast and we can see that they have broken their leg. We cannot always see when someone is suffering from a mental health issue, so it needs to be destigmatised. It also needs to be given the same consideration as physical illness, and I think it is.

Obviously, my speech has now been dumped, because so many points were raised in the debate and I feel that I have to answer them. I shall start with the hon. Member for Bath, who raised so many points when introducing the debate. I want to answer some of her questions. One of her first points was about rape crisis centres; this year, we will spend £35 million and fund 47 sexual assault referral centres, to ensure that when sexual violence occurs, there is the best possible response for victims. The centres are available to all victims—male and female, adults, children, and current and non-current victims of rape and abuse.

I want to mention the approach the Government have taken to mental health. I took up this post just as we announced £2.3 billion of expenditure on mental health. Let me put that into perspective: my hon. Friend the Member for Cheltenham (Alex Chalk) informed me that that is more than half the entire yearly prisons budget; that demonstrates how much money we are investing in mental health. The money is going into many areas, but in almost all areas it will have an impact on women and young girls— and this debate is all about women’s mental health. It is important that women are at the centre of all mental health policy. They should be not just be siloed off into their own particular areas; they should be at the centre of everything.

[Mr Kevan Jones]

I understand what the Minister says about the increase in budgets, but does she not also realise that cuts in other areas are actually adding to the problems? Therefore, it does not matter how much money we pour into mental health services. Public health funding, for example, which is devolved to local authorities such as Durham, has had a 40% cut, which means that existing services, such as those for substance abuse, have had to be cut. Putting money in one way and taking it out in another does not solve the problem.

[Ms Dorries]

The NHS budget is not bottomless, but the mental health budget is growing faster than the overall health budget, and the budget for children and young people is growing even faster than that. One Member—I think it was the hon. Member for Lewisham West and Penge (Ellie Reeves)—said that more people are presenting with mental health issues now than ever before. In fact, GPs agree with that, and say that a lot more people are presenting with those issues at their surgeries. That is due to many, many reasons. One Member raised the issues of the postings on Facebook and Instagram, of body image and of dieting. There are many reasons why people are suffering from mental health issues, and it is not just to do with service cuts, which are being addressed.

I need to race on with my speech because I have just three minutes left. On the maternal six-week check, we hope to ensure that that happens in all our GP contracts going forward.[Official Report, 7 October 2019, Vol. 664, c. 11MC.] The hon. Member for Bath mentioned the Istanbul convention. The Government signed the Istanbul convention in 2012 to reaffirm our strong commitment to tackling violence against women and girls. She also talked about eating disorders—I know that she has brought forward other debates on this issue. She also mentioned body mass index. We want all GPs to adhere to the NICE guidelines, which means that they must take a holistic approach to young women who are presenting with potential eating disorders. I am talking about taking a look at dental records, considering whether those women are still living a full life and still working, whether they are seen to be eating or whether they are absenting themselves after a meal. We need to look at everything in the round. Nobody should be referred for having an eating disorder based on their BMI alone. That is in the guidelines. We are raising awareness of that, and introducing more training for GPs, so that they are aware of this, too. The hon. Lady may be aware that I wrote an article on this subject recently, emphasising that point.

Perinatal mental health, as we discussed, is also important. According to one study published in 2014, a shocking 10% to 20% of women develop a mental health illness during pregnancy, or within the first year of having a baby. From April 2019, new and expectant mums have been able to access specialist perinatal mental health community services in every part of the country.

The NHS long-term plan, which I referred to earlier, commits to ensuring that an additional 24,000 women will have access to specialist perinatal mental healthcare, with more support for fathers and partners. I am pleased to see that NHS England has expanded the capacity of in-patient mother and baby units, which are in-patient services that support women with serious mental health issues, keeping them together with their babies, which is so important.

My hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (Sir David Amess) talked about female offenders. I know that women in prison often have a disproportionately high level of mental health problems, and there are also worrying levels of self-harm. We have recently published standards for healthcare for women in prison and are looking at improving care for pregnant women in prison.

The hon. Member for Lewisham West and Penge talked about health visitors. Earlier this year the Prime Minister announced our commitment to modernise the healthy child programme to reflect the latest evidence on how health visitors and other professionals can support perinatal mental health.

My hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) talked about the closure of children’s centres. We are investing £84 million over the next five years to support up to 20 local authorities that are seeing high demand for children’s social care. This will help to support the most vulnerable families, and I am sure that that is welcomed by everyone. It is up to local councils to decide how to organise and pay for services in their areas, as they are best placed to understand local needs.

The right hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones) talked about social media and about his constituent trying to get Facebook to take down an advert. I actually congratulated Facebook and Instagram recently on removing all the diet advertisements for miracle cures and diet teas that simply do not work. That is a step in the right direction. I also thank all the women in my constituency who have emailed me on that the issue and others.

[Mr Kevan Jones]

rose—

[Ms Dorries]

I do not have any time; I have only 30 seconds left.

The hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson) spoke about poverty. Many of us in this place understand the impact of poverty and have experienced poverty ourselves, and we know that it can cause anxiety not only for women, but for young girls. We absolutely understand those issues.

Let me say to the shadow Minister that our £2 million programme Standing Together Against Domestic Violence looks at how the whole health system can better respond to domestic abuse. Like her, I was delighted that the Domestic Abuse Bill passed its Second Reading yesterday. On carers and increased access, the carers action plan published in 2018 sets out a range of ways that we will improve support for carers. We published a progress review in July this year to ensure that we focus on delivering the plan.

The shadow Minister also spoke about the use of restraint, which is abhorrent. The Government fully supported the Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Bill—a private Member’s Bill that became an Act of Parliament on 1 November 2018. The Act imposes requirements regarding the use of force, the publication of data, and how and when physical, mechanical and chemical force is used, as well as requirements for improved staff training. We want to end restraint. We know that it continues to be a routine occurrence on many wards, affecting women and girls disproportionately. That has to end.[Official Report, 7 October 2019, Vol. 664, c. 12MC.]

I will conclude by stating again that we are putting £2.3 billion into mental health, and that will benefit women and young girls. Never before have any Government ever considered mental health in such a way—with regard to policy, and finance to drive that policy and back it up. I thank the hon. Member for Bath for raising this very important issue. We are making progress, and I am determined that we will make more. I recognise that there is more to do and we will certainly be working on that.