Young people’s mental health was the main agenda item at the recent community engagement meeting held at Milton Keynes Academy.
The meeting was organised by city MPs Mark Lancaster and Iain Stewart with speakers from the local NHS, Youth Counselling Service (YiS) and Dr. Bailham, a consultant Clinical Psychologist.
Despite a small number of the MK People's Assembly attempting to disrupt the event, the meeting was productive in bringing people together from right across Milton Keynes. A church minister who attended the meeting said “It is really positive to have so many organisations and residents come together on this growing subject. Hopefully with more funding now coming through, the right level of support will be available to residents struggling with mental health.”
Milton Keynes North MP Mark Lancaster said:
“This is the latest in a number of extremely worthwhile community engagement events. As we have just had World Mental Health Day I thought it was important to have an open discussion into the challenges people face when trying to attain support in Milton Keynes. I was pleased to hear that things are happening and there is more funding being made available both nationally and locally but, there is more to do and I will continue to play my part and support the NHS and charities locally.”
Residents were able to find out more about the prevalence of mental ill-health among young people, level of support services available to them in Milton Keynes, while also highlighting the challenges that remain. Key talking points were the need to give mental and physical health equal priority, recognition of voluntary sector’s role by central government in the allocation of new funding streams and the need for better access to information.
