Agenda item

To receive a report from the Cabinet Member for Strategic Commissioning and Public Health and the Director of Public Health, which the Committee is asked to comment on and endorse.

1.            Ms D Marsh, Deputy Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, introduced the report as the Member champion for mental health issues and emphasised the need to achieve parity of esteem for mental and physical health.  She explained that the Time to Change initiative had been in place since 2007 and said that mental health was something that no employer could afford to ignore, as one in four British workers would suffer from anxiety or depression at some time in their career, and many working days were lost to this every year, although it was known that many people calling in sick did not give this as the reason for their absence from work.  She invited all Members to attend the vents taking place at County Hall on 10 October to celebrate World Mental Health Day. 

2.            Ms Mookherjee advised that there was a 25-year gap in life expectancy between those with poor mental health and those with good mental health. Time to Change had set out to address mental ill health and mental distress.  She added that mental health should not be celebrated just on one day but every day.  She and Mr Scott-Clark responded to comments and questions from the committee, including the following:-

a)    the close link between this and the substance misuse item preceding was emphasised, and surprise expressed at the revelation that those with poor mental health had 25 years’ less life expectancy.  Mr Scott-Clark added that those with poor mental health were also known to be four times more likely to smoke and hence were at risk of developing all the conditions which were caused by smoking;

b)    the stigma faced by people with poor mental health was likened to that experienced 100 years ago by those with leprosy;

c)    the Shed project, run in several locations across Kent, was commended  as an excellent social support mechanism for adults with mental health issues and Members were encouraged to support their local Shed schemes.  Ms Mookherjee added that Kent had the highest concentration of Shed projects in the UK;

d)    frontline Kent County Council staff had challenging workloads, and would need to be given as much support as possible to cope with heavy workloads and to avoid stress and anxiety arising from this. The work going on within the County Council to promote good mental health among staff was welcomed by the committee, and officers were congratulated on that work;

e)    a speaker asked where the most hits on the Release the Pressure website had come from and if these were from areas of greatest deprivation.  Ms Mookherjee undertook to evaluate the figures and advise the speaker outside the meeting;

f)     understanding and treatment of mental health conditions had progressed much since the 1980s, and people would hopefully soon be able to go to their GP and talk about being depressed without embarrassment or fear of being stigmatised.  However, sufficient and appropriate resources would need to be available to follow up a diagnosis of depression.  Waiting times for an appointment with a psychiatrist were still long.  Ms Mookherjee explained that improvement of mental health treatment was one of the  work streams in the Sustainability Transformation Plan, with the aim of seeing that this was properly resourced in the future; and

g)    summing up, the Chairman commented that this issue deserved the attention it was now receiving and commented that a good place to start was with people looking after each other.

3.            It was RESOLVED that:

a)    theaction planfor Timeto Change be endorsed; and

b)    comments made by Members on strengtheningthe planin subsequentyears, incommitment tothe Time to Changecampaign, be noted.