Our members across Greater Manchester helped put counselling and psychotherapy firmly on the agenda for the upcoming mayoral elections in a special hustings event.

We were proud to sponsor the Build Back Better Mental Health mayoral hustings, which brought together Greater Manchester mayoral candidates and put the spotlight firmly on counselling and psychotherapy.

The event saw candidates from across the political spectrum offer their views and proposals for how to improve Greater Manchester鈥檚 mental health in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And among the 200 attendees we were pleased to see many 香港六合彩精准资料 members and counseling services from across the city region.

Mental health

Some of the event鈥檚 speakers acknowledged from the outset that mental health had been a salient issue long before the pandemic.

This was picked up by the evening鈥檚 host, comedian Juliette Burton, in her introductory remarks, in which she shared her own mental health journey.

Juliette said: 鈥淢y life has been saved by mental health services. It鈥檚 time for the mental health pandemic to be recognized and addressed.鈥�

Andy Burnham, the Labour Party鈥檚 incumbent, said mental health issues ran parallel to the COVID-19 pandemic.

His proposals for enhanced counselling and psychotherapy services for Greater Manchester included a 鈥渓ive well service鈥� which would structure support through organisation by primary care but delivery through voluntary and community services, including digital delivery, particularly for younger people.

This contrasted with the approach of Stephen Morris of the English Democrats, who held that counselling services 鈥渘eed to start opening up鈥� for in-person delivery, as 鈥渋t鈥檚 not the same on Zoom鈥�.

Powerful voice

He maintained that the Mayor鈥檚 Office was a 鈥減owerful voice鈥� in signposting people to services.

The Liberal Democrats鈥� Simon Lepori said his vision for building back better mental health was to balance the financial books so Manchester invested at least as much of a proportion of its budget into its mental health services as the national average for England in 2020.

He also spoke of wanting a future for services in Manchester which 鈥渉elps practitioners provide a service that鈥檚 in the right place at the right time鈥�, from community interventions to in-patient care.

Melanie Horrocks, of the Green Party, spoke about how communities in Greater Manchester had been impacted differently by the pandemic.

Following a holistic approach for mental health services which took account of living and employment conditions, access to green spaces, among other things, Horrock focused on people鈥檚 engagement with and access to services.

She highlighted how 鈥渟ervices not being available鈥� and waiting lists could lead to disengagement. She said a variety of therapeutic options were needed 鈥渟o people can actually get help which works for them鈥�.

Vital

Haydn Williams, our Chief Executive, had introduced the evening by paying tribute to the work of the 鈥�1,500 outstanding members of the 香港六合彩精准资料 across Greater Manchester, who will be a vital resource in building back better mental health for the area鈥�.

After the election in May we鈥檒l be engaging with the new Mayor to ensure they use our members in the critical work ahead to address the mental health impact of the pandemic in Greater Manchester.

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