Daisy Cooper made the commitment at the Liberal Democrats' autumn conference

The Liberal Democrats would introduce ‘mental health MOTs’, the party’s deputy leader Daisy Cooper has said. Cooper made the pledge in her keynote speech to the party’s autumn conference in Bournemouth.

In her speech, Cooper laid into the Tories’ record on health and the NHS. She told delegates that she sees “the damage this Conservative government has done to our NHS every single day”, adding “the Conservatives have been so busy fighting among themselves […] that they have no real plan at all to put our NHS back on its feet”.

She went on to set out a series of commitments the Lib Dems have made around mental health, an issue she described as a ‘raw injustice’. Specifically, she laid out plans to tackle mental health issues among young people.

She told the conference: “Our plan starts by rolling out community mental health hubs for children and young people in every area of the country,” later adding that her party wants to see “a qualified mental health practitioner in every school”, and “we finally want to put an end to out of area placements for mental health treatment.”

In the closing moments of her speech, she said she wanted to see mental health treated similarly to physical health, with the introduction of ‘mental health MOTs’ in a similar vein to physical health check ups. She said: “I am delighted to announce that today we will introduce mental health MOTs – mental health check ups at key points in people’s live when we know that their mental health could be at risk”, later adding: “Mental health MOTs should be just as routine as physical health check-ups.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Image credit: UK Parliament – Creative Commons

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