MP backs campaign for children’s health

Labour MP David Hinchliffe this week tabled an early day motion
supporting Community Care‘s Changing Minds campaign for
better mental health care for children.

The motion, which highlights the lack of national policy on where
young people with mental health problems should be treated, follows
the announcement by health secretary Alan Milburn last week of a
£140m investment over the next three years in child and
adolescent mental health services.

It calls on the government to convene a task force to draw up a
national strategy for England covering all mental health services
for children and young people.

Young people are returning to the mental health system as adults
with “more severe and enduring difficulties”, it claims.

In addition, the motion calls for further funding in mental health
services for children and young people, stating that there is
almost no specialist provision and few community-based services
available for them, even though the previous health committee
specifically called for such services.