Shadow Minister...

...for Public Health, Luciana Berger MP, was in town today.

Hardly front page news really as she is one of Liverpool's five MPs. We met at an event to launch a superb new service, a partnership between local Citizens Advice Bureaux (celebrating 75 years in existence this year - they were established at the start of WW2 to provide advice in times of austerity...) and NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group to provide 'Advice on Prescription' as a means of addressing stress and anxiety and preventing the need to make clinical referrals for mental health support. In Liverpool, one in three GP appointments is related to mental health in one way or another and it's very often linked to poverty, housing, employment and factors which can't and shouldn't always be addressed by prescribing medication or talking therapies - although these may also be useful sometimes!

Now, all GP practices in Liverpool have access to trained, volunteer, advisors who've already made a HUGE difference during the pilot project. Well done to everyone concerned.

MORE of this sort of thing please!

I managed to have a few words with Ms Berger about the importance of involving people with direct experience of mental distress in designing mental health strategy (it's what my job's all about after all!) and she said she'd like to talk further, so I shall attempt to hold her to that!