Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron says more money must be allocated to Cumbria to help deal with mental health issues

Mental health problems affect us all.

I reckon around a quarter of all problems that people write to me about will be in some way related to mental health.

Over the past 40 years we’ve come on leaps and bounds in terms of how society treats people with mental health problems. However, there can be no doubt that there continues to be a huge difference between how physical illnesses and mental illnesses are dealt with.

Earlier this year, through our community campaign, we managed to secure out-of-hours mental health treatment for young people in south Cumbria. Until then, access to the specialist mental health crisis team was only available from 9am-5pm on weekdays for young people in our area.

The fact that, in 2018, this care was only available during office hours shows you how far we’ve got to go until we reach parity of esteem with physical health.

But by far the biggest issue we face when it comes to dealing with mental health problems is trying to prevent them happening at an early age.

Sadly, the truth is that the money needed to do this simply isn’t there for Cumbria.

The most recent figures show that our county receives just £37 per person in Public Health Allocations each year, compared to the national average of £64.

The figure, which is £20 less per head than Lancashire receives, is also a stark contrast to the hefty sums received by a number of local authorities across London, with Westminster receiving £123 per head, while that figure is £131 in Kensington and Chelsea, and £179 per head in the City of London.

It’s not just that this is unfair but having such a small amount to spend on public health also has very serious consequences. This lack of funds means that only 75p per child is spent each year on preventative mental health care.

What a massive insult to all of us in Cumbria.

Preventative mental health care, whether it comes in the form of health visitors, school nurses, GPs, helplines or websites, is vitally important in supporting our young people in the early stages of mental health problems, so that those problems don't become so severe.

Back in 2015, the Coalition Government agreed to allocate Cumbria £25m a year for public health. But the Conservatives reneged on that promise, and now only give us £18m - £7m less than originally promised.

This is money that should have been spent on a mental health worker for every school. This would have not only helped our children’s mental health but would have eased the burden on our massively oversubscribed local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and relieved the pressure on overworked teachers.

But, instead, this is yet another example of Cumbria treated as being at the end of the line by those in power.

However, we know that when we come together as a community we can take on industry bosses and Government ministers and achieve great things. Whether that be fighting to get West Coast Railways to run a service on the Lakes Line in the summer when Northern had given up, or the great volunteers at B4RN bringing hyper-fast broadband to some of our most cut-off communities or even the community in Witherslack celebrating 10 years of keeping a community village shop going.

Over the upcoming weeks and months, I plan to work closely with mental health charities and local politicians from all different parties, so that Cumbria’s children are no longer left behind when it comes to mental health prevention.

To sign our petition for the Government to stop the 75p insult to Cumbria’s kids, head to https://www.southlakeslibdems.org.uk/fund_cumbria_s_children_mental_health_services