More cash needed to help patients with mental health issues, says Shropshire woman

Kelly Lowe has struggled with depression for much of her life and said she was left waiting six months for an appointment on the NHS.

She says there needs to be an urgent review into the resources needed to ensure people receive faster treatment to aid their recovery from mental health problems.

Kelly said: "There is an urgency for extra psychiatric nurses and a cash injection is needed."

The 56-year-old has praised her employers for the help they gave her and says more investment needs to be put into the mental health service nationally to ensure people are given immediate help.

Kelly, who lives in Albrighton with her husband Steve, said she fell ill towards the end of July.

She said: "I've suffered with depression throughout my life, as a child and in my adult life.

"I have blips and last year I was down. I was struggling with things going on in my working life and also had a lot going on in my personal life. I went to the doctors and they changed my medication and suggested I had some CBT, which is cognitive behavioural therapy.

"I was off work for about three weeks and in that time I didn't want to be sat at home and stagnating, but people at my work were really good and gave me a phased return which was really helpful."

Kelly, who works for Interserve Healthcare in the governance team based in Telford, says not only were her colleagues supportive in her recovery and welcoming her back, but the firm also offered her vital, privately provided treatment that gave her eight, free 50-minute sessions of CBT.

But without that treatment, she would have had to wait until January to access help from the NHS. She said the sessions were "fantastic" and helped her immensely.

But she heard nothing from the NHS until about three or four weeks ago, when she finally received a letter in the post saying that there was now a place available for her treatment.

She said: "At that moment I felt so disappointed and I felt the injustice of it.

"So many people are still on the waiting list and my heart goes out to them.

"People struggling with mental health, be that depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, self harm, need immediate treatment. I just felt so angry and like I needed to say something." Not only does she appreciate the help her employers gave her to recover, she appreciates the treatment she got from her team who were understanding during a difficult period.

Kelly said more needs to be done to encourage Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to invest more money into mental health treatment.

She added: "If you think of all of mental health as a hub, there are spurs coming from it like crime, suicide rates, people going to A&E.

"All of these things can also be reduced if you just invest in that hub of mental health. Families and are supportive, they try and do as much as they can but they can only do so much before people need professional help.

My heart goes out to the people who are still suffering."

Richard Caddy, of Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which is in charge of health services in the county,

said: "The CCG is committed to working with all our partners through the Sustainability and Transformation Plan to giving parity of esteem to mental health – meaning that it is given the same priority as physical injury or illness.

"This local health and care plan also includes a joint mental health strategy and plans to develop 24/7 mental health support.."

Charities join calls for extra funding

Charities say mental health care has suffered from long-term under-funding.

Mind has supported calls for increased funding for mental health care.

It says people suffering with mental health problems are not getting the help they need.

After plans have been announced for greater funding within the next five years, the charity says it wants to ensure that it goes to the places where it is most needed.

Policy and campaigns manager at Mind, Geoff Hayes, said he entirely agreed with the concerns raised by Kelly Lowe and said her story was very typical of the experience of sufferers across the UK.

He said: "As public attitudes towards mental health start to improve, we now see the true scale of the need to support people who experience mental health problems.

"The Prime Minister has committed to making mental health a priority in Government, so our job is to ensure that the commitment is met.

"Mental health has been neglected and suffered underinvestment for decades.

"We see the impact of this in people not getting the help they need, when they need it, and in the distinct lack of activity currently in prevention of mental health problems.

"NHS mental health services have been subjected to significant cuts over recent years, more so than the acute sector, at a time of rising demand. This has left some parts of the system struggling to cope."