Trudy Harrison has praised a Millom based Autism group after asking a Health Minister what steps are being made to help improve mental health services for children and young people across Copeland.
In the Department for Health questions today, Trudy asked Minister, Jackie Doyle-Price what steps are being taken to improve the provision of mental health services for children and young people across her constituency.
In response to Mrs Harrison written question, Ms Doyle-Price, said: “We’ve assessed children and young people’s mental health as part of our on-going work to improve services. Results of our assessments has led to £1.4-billion extra funding, supporting locally led transformation plans and the recent green paper which aims to improve provisional services at schools, bolster links between schools and the NHS and pilot a four-week waiting time.”
Mrs Harrison, continued: “The parents of five-year-old Jesse Evans blog about his Autism Adventures to help other parents.
“Jesse’s family and many other families in my rural, coastal Copeland constituency have formed self-sustaining support groups, like Autism Around the Combe to help when services are difficult to access.
“Could the Minister confirm if the recently announced multi-million pound, integrated community care development at West Cumberland Hospital will improve services in Copeland for families living with Autism.”
Ms Price-Doyle, responded: “What my Honourable friend highlights is that the great synergies between the provision of health services that we in Government will give, which obviously, people rely on, but also the very important issues regarding self-help which can be done, and the support that people can give each other when they share their experiences, but I would like to commend the work of Jesse Evans Autism Adventures blog which I think is extremely positive and educational.”
Mrs Harrison, added: “Little Jesse Evans and his Autism Adventures capture the daily challenges of living with Autism with the support of Autism Around The Combe, an inspiring local group. I was pleased that the Minister recognised how important these groups are to our rural communities today.”