Visit to Greenwich Mental Health Hub with Mind
It was great to visit the Plumstead Health Centre this month and meet all the lovely and hardworking staff at South East London Mind. You can find out more about their work here.
Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW)
It was important this month to mark Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW). In my role as Shadow Minister for Mental Health, I have been working hard on our plans to end the current mental health crisis and wrote about these issues in the New Statesman here.
I was also pleased to attend the Mental Health Foundation’s reception in Parliament and to meet Mr Motivator and Jonny Wilkinson, both influential and positive voices promoting good mental health and the importance keeping active.
Speaking at NHS Confederation’s Annual Mental Health Conference
Many thanks to NHS Confederation for inviting me to speak to their annual Mental Health Conference in Leeds on the urgent need to invest in our mental health services.
It was also important to learn about the innovative approaches taken at Leeds Synergi to tackle ethnic inequalities in mental health.
Reforming the Mental Health Act Speech at Policy-Connect Symposium
As Shadow Minister for Women’s Health and Mental Health, I was also pleased to speak at this symposium focused on how Black Men are disproportionately detained under the Mental Health Act.
The law as it stands is not fit for purpose, with Black people four times more likely to be sectioned than White people and eight times more likely to be placed under a Community Treatment Order (CTO).
My speech emphasised the urgent reform needed to the Mental Health Act and how that can be achieved. I would like to thank Policy Connect and Lord Bradley for inviting me to join as the keynote speaking at this vital event.
Cornerstone School with London Sport Visit
It was great to visit Cornerstone School in Belvedere this month to join a sports session supported by London Sport.
Cornerstone School provides a foundation of learning tailored to pupils aged 11 – 19 who have a primary diagnosis of autism, and Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs. London Sport is a charity focussed on tackling inequality and inactivity in London and is distributing £5.7m of funding to schools in London over a three-year period.
Thanks to this funding, Cornerstone School has been able to run projects for its students with new equipment and increased accessibility.
It was amazing to see the students showcasing their sports skills and competitiveness at the gym, table tennis and trampolining. I was particularly impressed with the leadership and dedication of the headteacher and her team. It was clear how passionate all the teachers were to make sure the students had a nurturing, friendly and supportive environment.
Visit to London South East Colleges
It was fantastic to visit the London South East London Colleges Bexley campus this month. I had an insightful discussion with the CEO and Student Union President, as well as a tour of the college’s impressive facilities.
It is so important that we hear directly from young people on their experiences with mental health, which is why I was very pleased to have been able to have a roundtable discussion with students from the College.
We know that our child and adolescent mental health services are in a severe state of crisis, with the number of children and young people undergoing treatment or waiting to start care having reached new records. That’s why Labour will recruit thousands more mental health staff to cut waiting lists and ensure more people can access treatment alongside creating an open-access mental health hub for children and young people in every community.
My visit only reaffirms my commitment to championing our colleges, empowering our teachers, and providing every student with the tools they need to succeed. I look forward to working with the College in future to support the talents and aspirations of the young people in Erith and Thamesmead.
Roundtable on Mental Health app ‘Shout’ with Google and Mental Health Innovations
This month, Abena hosted an important roundtable discussion in Parliament alongside Google and Mental Health Innovations, a charity supported by Google.
The aim was to explore the potential of AI in enhancing the efficiency of Mental Health Innovations’ (MHI) digital support service, Shout. The gathering brought together parliamentarians, Shout beneficiaries, senior representatives from MHI and Google, as well as Professor Peter Fonagy OBE, Head of the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL.
One of the key outcomes of the discussion was Google.org’s commitment to supporting MHI’s with funding to leverage AI in improving their flagship service- Shout. Shout is a text message service providing free, 24/7 mental health support to anyone in the UK.
During the roundtable, Parliamentarians received tailored reports for their respective regions, shedding light on the utilization of the Shout support service and the prevalent mental health issues in those areas. The focus was on exploring how digital services can augment mental health support and better cater to vulnerable groups across the UK.
Abena was joined by other Parliamentarians including Tracey Crouch MP, Liz Twist MP, Jeff Smith MP, and Andy Slaughter MP, who contributed valuable insights from their experiences supporting constituents through mental health challenges, while understanding the ways in which young people seek support through AI Tech enabled platforms such as text services and AI chatbots.
One of the most poignant moments of the discussion was hearing the parents of a 12-year-old girl who benefited from the service and from Emily, a dedicated volunteer at Shout. Their testimonials highlighted the profound impact of tech-based mental health services, such as text support and AI chatbots, in reaching and aiding vulnerable individuals.
Google’s Vice President of Product Management also spoke about how Google Search directs vulnerable individuals towards the help they need, and Professor Fonagy spoke on the transformative potential of machine learning and AI in crisis intervention.
This roundtable highlighted the collaborative efforts between policymakers, tech giants, and mental health experts in harnessing technology to address mental health challenges.
Abena Oppong-Asare, Shadow Minister for Women’s Health and Mental Health said:
“It was a pleasure to join Google and Mental Health Innovations today in parliament to discuss the important subject of mental health. The services provided by the charity are vital for those suffering with their mental health and I’m pleased Google.org is providing the financial resources to help develop the use of AI to optimise and improve the efficiency of their flagship service Shout.”
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Norwich Hospital and Mental Health Hub Visits
We know that so much more needs to be done to tackle NHS waiting times and to address the mental health crisis faced by our youth.
This month, I was pleased to join the Labour candidate for Norwich North, Alice Macdonald as we met the hard-working staff at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and also the fantastic team at the Risebrow Mental Health hub in Norwich City centre.
It was really important to hear all the pressing issues they are facing and I was also pleased to share Labour’s plans on how we would do things differently.
Abena appointed Shadow Minister for Women’s Health and Mental Health
I hope you will be pleased to know that I have recently accepted the position of Shadow Minister for Women’s Health and Mental Health. This is such an important role and these are issues that I’m really passionate about.
My main role as a Shadow Minister is scrutiny. I am committed to ensuring that the government is held accountable in legislative procedures and in ministerial conduct. This might include exploring government policy, finding its faults, and critiquing it. That being said, as an opposition minister I am part of a government in waiting. This means that I must ensure that Labour is ready for government in case of electoral victory, and ready to deliver our mission to build an NHS Fit for the Future.
I am pleased to say that Labour is committed to getting waiting lists down and getting people treated on time. We have a 10-year plan for change and modernisation and this will include one of the biggest expansions of the NHS workforce in history. But more than that, we plan to put individual care and mental health treatment at the heart of our mission. An issue that has for too long been in the shadows.
With Labour, more care will be delivered on your doorstep, out of the hospital and in the community. We will focus on prevention and a move towards transformational new technologies.
In my new role, I will be working with various charities and stakeholders, listening to experts in Women’s Health and Mental Health, and considering how Labour will do things differently. However, I will also be speaking to those working in our health and care sectors and the patients receiving care.
I’d love to see Women’s Health and Mental Health services transformed into something that the British people can be truly proud of. I want everybody to receive the support that they deserve, delivered as quickly and efficiently as possible.
It is Labour who has the plan and the mission to build a NHS Fit for the Future and there for you when you need it. I encourage you to take a quick look at Labour’s plans for health services, which you can read here: Building an NHS fit for the future.
