All Campaigns subcategories:
NHS keywords:
Mental health
Highlight keywords |
Print this article
Search site for keywords: Mental health - Labour - Health - Cuts - Leicester
Mental health services gutted by Labour cuts
Andrew Walton, Leicester Socialist Party
Rizwan Dodya, a mental health service user, contacted Leicester Socialist Party about cuts to local mental health services. He had been given help with confidence-building skills by a local centre called Akwaaba Ayeh.
The project has been around for over 20 years, helping some of Leicester's most vulnerable. It is a specialist service for ethnic minorities, situated in a diverse, working class area with high unemployment and poverty. Rizwan found the staff there helpful and experienced.
The nearby Adhar Project also provides mental health services for ethnic minorities. The two centres are being closed, merged and moved miles from the community. This change is driven by cuts, not service users' needs.
Stigma
The stigma surrounding mental health issues makes many reluctant to come forward about them. This is why specialist centres must be situated in the communities they serve, to make people feel welcome.
I tried to visit Akwaaba Ayeh to discuss cuts with staff and ask if the Socialist Party could help. A notice informed me it would be closing next month.
Reports are that staffing will be cut. Meal charges have increased from £2 a month to £6 a week - a huge difference for unemployed and low-paid workers.
Activities have been lost as well, including group sessions where service users could solve problems together. The new site is overcrowded - and offers only bingo and cooking.
To be effective, mental health services need to be delivered locally, in a safe and comfortable environment, with therapeutic activities. To remain stable they need direct funding from councils and the NHS, not charity or lottery handouts.
Mental health difficulties often arise from long-term unemployment, social isolation and discrimination. All of these are exacerbated by austerity. Leicester's Labour council has meekly accepted Tory cuts.
The council actually has £50 million in reserve - and is adding to this pot "for a rainy day". We say that cuts are raining down on vulnerable people now!
If councillors had the will, they could keep services running with reserves. This would buy time to build a trade union and community campaign, including strikes and occupations if necessary, to win the money back.
This is what the Socialist Party fights for, and stands for in elections as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC). This approach would give vulnerable people purpose and the confidence to fight back, as well as safeguarding the services they need to recover.
Donate to the Socialist Party
Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
LATEST POSTS
12 May Stop Israeli state brutality
 |
9 May Post-election meetings
15 May Birmingham Socialist Party: How can we fight for socialist change and a new workers' party?
17 May Oxfordshire & Aylesbury Socialist Party: The role of the state
18 May Bristol North Socialist Party: Liverpool - history of socialist struggle
CONTACT US
Phone our national office on 020 8988 8777
Email: [email protected]
Locate your nearest Socialist Party branch Text your name and postcode to 07761 818 206
Regional Socialist Party organisers:
Eastern: 079 8202 1969
East Mids: 077 3797 8057
London: 075 4018 9052
North East: 078 4114 4890
North West 079 5437 6096
South West: 077 5979 6478
Southern: 078 3368 1910
Wales: 079 3539 1947
West Mids: 024 7655 5620
Yorkshire: 078 0983 9793
ABOUT US
ARCHIVE
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999