GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

therapy or even residential care. Addiction services have been palmed off to

charities and rehab is more difficult than ever to access. We can all help to

break the stigma of mental health by making it okay to talk about at home and

at work. I feel there are still areas that lack understanding. There is an

assumption that to be back at work means that you are okay, you are fixed, you

are healed, but usually mental illnesses are chronic conditions. We manage

them daily and sometimes, sadly, relapse. As a part of this management there

might be drugs. People are often pill shaming others, not understanding that

these drugs can keep you well in the same way as asthma inhalers or insulin.

“Depression” is a word that can be overused and, therefore, devalued for those

that suffer from the condition. The media has been slow to catch on to the fact

that words like “psycho”, “Schiz”, “Nutter”, “Madman” and “mental patient” are

not appropriate and can be really offensive to anyone that has been an

inpatient, suffered psychosis or schizophrenia.

The Musicians Union has worked really hard with having a health and

wellbeing month last summer. This was run alongside Help Musicians UK and

BAPAM. This included workshops on stress and perfectionism, resilience, the

healthy performer, sexual harassment and stress at work, among many other

things. It was a great success and helped a lot of members and I hope there is

going to be another wellbeing event next year.

With the election looming I want to share what is happening where I live. The

Tories have continued to underfund services and Norfolk and Suffolk Mental

Health Trust has been in special measures and it is no surprise. The mental

health staff team have been reduced. 140 beds have been lost, meaning

people are sent to other places in the country alone to be treated, including

children. Unexpected deaths have doubled. That is the suicide rate going up.

The police have to deal with very unwell people in their already stretched

service, so the buck just gets passed. All evidence shows that early

intervention is the key, yet there is no support, especially for young people. You

can only get help when you are very unwell, which is too little too late. Looking

at the Tories’ proposals for mental health, it is all very jam tomorrow – no time

scale, no facts, no figures. Labour want to aim for true parity of esteem,

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