A council has declared a mental health crisis in its borough while sharing a commitment to ending the stigma around men\u2019s mental health.<\/p>\n
Councillor Tom Nundy proposed a motion at a Swale council meeting on International Men\u2019s Day, November 19, which highlights the contributions of men and boys, while addressing the challenges they face.<\/p>\n
Cllr Tom Nundy put forward the motion. Picture: Swale council<\/p>\n
The motion he put forward asked the council to acknowledge the crisis in its community and asked it to try and force the central government\u2019s hand to do better, saying \u201cquite frankly the people in Swale deserve better\u201d.<\/p>\n
It prompted a lively debate, with speakers both in favour and against, but was passed with 30 in favour, four against and four abstentions.<\/p>\n
As a result, the council declared a mental health crisis and committed to ending the stigma around men\u2019s mental health with a communication campaign.<\/p>\n
It also agreed to actively promote the support services available to residents, including Mind, MenTalk Health Swale Groups, the Samaritans and CALM.<\/p>\n
Two amendments were made, which included writing to central government and schools, as well as changing the last paragraph to \u201cpay tribute to those in our community\u201d who have died by suicide.<\/p>\n
Swale council has declared a mental health crisis<\/p>\n
The council will write to the government and Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Trust to urgently improve the doctor-to-patient ratio in Swale and to ensure better access to mental health services at the point of need.<\/p>\n
It will also ask schools to promote better mental health awareness, particularly with boys.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the day, Cllr Nundy said: \u201cIt is International Men\u2019s Day and I truly believe that sometimes men\u2019s issues get overlooked.<\/p>\n
\u201cSwale has the third-highest rate of suicide in Kent and is in the top 30% nationally. If that isn\u2019t enough to suggest a mental health crisis, honestly, I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so grateful for the voluntary sector and local groups who do the people in Swale a tremendous service. Truly, truly grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Cllr Nundy put forward the motion on International Men\u2019s Day<\/p>\n
\u201cTo all the men out there – if you\u2019re struggling and need help please, please, please talk to someone.<\/p>\n
He expressed gratitude to all the councillors who \u201cspoke fiercely\u201d in favour of the motion and supported it.<\/p>\n
Sharing his personal experience, Cllr Nundy wrote on Facebook: \u201cI\u2019m currently halfway through a course of counselling to help me deal with some of my neurodiverse and OCD symptoms and honestly I feel so much better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A council has declared a mental health crisis in its borough while sharing a commitment to ending the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[193,102,192,189,1906,6623,229,190,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-275971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-charity","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-human-interest","11":"tag-isle-of-sheppey","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-mentalhealth","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-sittingbourne","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}