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We鈥檝e called on the government and policy makers in London to invest in counselling and psychotherapy to help tackle the chronic, wide-ranging, and long-lasting mental health issues of COVID-19.

We told the Minister and Shadow Minister for Mental Health that our highly-skilled and qualified members are ready now to support communities in the capital in their recovery from the pandemic.

Our Chair Natalie Bailey, speaking at our online roundtable Building Back Better Mental Health in London, which was attended by hundreds of our London-based members, said people right across society have been impacted by the pandemic.

鈥淚t鈥檚 affected young people, older people, people working in the NHS and education, blue light services and people affected by bereavement, poverty and debt,鈥� she said.

鈥淐ounselling and psychotherapy is part of the solution to a major issue. It鈥檚 critical to the recovery from the pandemic.

鈥淢ore funding for counselling will help tackle some of the deep-rooted inequalities. Investment ensures appropriate, culturally sensitive, and accessible choice before the problem escalates.

鈥淎nd we have 61,000 members who can contribute to that solution.鈥�

Hosted by Sir Norman Lamb, our roundtable event, held in partnership with Mind in London, focused on the impact of COVID-19 and how to respond to the chronic, wide-ranging, and long-lasting mental health issues it鈥檚 thrown up.

Speakers included Mental Health Minister Gillian Keegan; Shadow Mental Health Minister Rosena Allin-Khan; Marie Gabriel, Chair of NE London ICS; Lynette Charles, Chair of Mind in London; Navdeep Jaichand, of Mind in London鈥檚 Lived Experience Panel; Councillor Georgia Gould, Joint Chair of the London Recovery Board; and Dr Tom Coffey, Mayoral Advisor on Mental Health; as well as Natalie and our Chief Executive Dr Hadyn Williams.

Hadyn told the roundtable聽 that counselling was of equal quality as IAPT and more flexible, as he made the case for counselling and psychotherapy to play a bigger part in the mental health recovery of people and communities.

Hadyn said: 鈥淲e鈥檇 like to see much greater investment to ensure fully-funded and appropriate counselling and psychotherapy which utilises the capacity of our trained workforce. We鈥檇 like to see this across all settings including London鈥檚 schools and colleges, across our NHS and through community settings.

鈥淭here鈥檚 clearly a role for all tiers of government to get behind this ambition and we鈥檙e keen to work with all partners to make this happen.

鈥淚nvesting in life-changing mental health services is critical to our recovery and will deliver extensive cost-saving benefits to national and local government budgets as well as tackling the deep-rooted inequalities that hold so many of our fellow citizens back.鈥�

Ms Keegan thanked our members for their 鈥渃rucial work in supporting people's mental health鈥� during the pandemic.

She drew attention to the government鈥檚 COVID-19 mental health and wellbeing recovery action plan which aims聽to prevent, mitigate, and respond to the mental health impacts of the pandemic.

鈥淚t is backed by additional 拢500m to make sure we have the right support in place and that will go into address waiting times, and also give people the mental health support they need, plus investment in the workforce.鈥�

She said 拢110m was being used to expand adult mental health services, including talking and psychological therapies.

鈥淧lus, we've got 拢111 million pounds to grow the workforce to make sure we deliver these ambitious commitments.鈥�

She added: 鈥淭he fact is that because demand is so high in the aftermath of the pandemic, a lot of people struggle to get access to services and so we need to train more staff, particularly in ensuring early intervention.鈥�

Shadow Mental Health Minister Rosena Allin-Khan, who is also a frontline NHS worker, also thanked our members for their work during the pandemic, saying: 鈥淚 know the power and value of the work you鈥檝e been doing throughout my entire career, but especially over the last two years.鈥�

Rosena said Labour鈥檚 plan for mental health would revolve around the workforce.

鈥淚t's not that fancy machines in your practice, it's about people,鈥� she said. 鈥淧eople that care, people that are supported, people that are well trained.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we're saying that a huge priority for us, were we to win the next General Election, is to train 8,500 extra mental health staff, guaranteeing mental health treatment for all who need it within a month.鈥�

She added that Labour would put an open-access hub in communities across England and provide 鈥渃ounsellors in every school鈥�.

Hadyn challenged plans by both the Government and the Opposition to create new roles when we already have a highly-skilled, trained, and available workforce.

Calling for more paid opportunities for qualified counsellors and psychotherapists, Hadyn said: 鈥淲orkforce expansion is cited as one of the biggest barriers to delivering the expansion of mental health services as set out in the NHS long term plan.

鈥淭he NHS often overlooks the highly qualified, experienced, skilled counselling and psychotherapy that already exists and doesn't need to be trained up.

鈥淭hey currently face barrier after barrier with trying to enter the NHS workforce, so we'd like to see an enhancement of the role of counselling and psychotherapy within the NHS, which better uses our trained workforce.

鈥淲e also call for a universal rights to access and a universal right choice of psychological therapies enshrined in the NHS constitution.鈥�

He added: 鈥淚APT has a significant role to play but isn鈥檛 the only solution.鈥�