{"id":800803,"date":"2026-08-03T08:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T08:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/800803\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T08:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T08:29:11","slug":"darlington-man-sets-up-petition-for-new-mental-health-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/800803\/","title":{"rendered":"Darlington man sets up petition for new Mental Health Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Josh Biggins, 29, has launched a petition, looking to require workplaces, schools, healthcare, housing, justice and public services to proactively protect mental health<\/a> by requiring an inspection rating.\n<\/p>\n

\n Mr Biggins has set up the petition as a direct result of his own experiences of battling mental health and his first-hand accounts of those around him battling work-related mental health.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I see the inspection as something like a Care Quality Commission rating that will protect employees from breaking point,” Mr Biggins said.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Don’t wait for people to break, protect them first, would be my message to employers.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I’ve experienced mental health struggles so know what other people experience daily, and how demanding everything can be for people.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I don’t want others to struggle in silence. I’ve seen the other side of things to how good support groups can be, but if it doesn’t have to get to that stage in the first place, that’s what this petition is here for.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Josh Biggins (Image: SUPPLIED)\n<\/p>\n

\n The 29-year-old says that through the Mental Health Duty Law, employers would be required to comply with mental health requirements from inspections done on a regular basis.\n<\/p>\n

\n He says that this might also reduce some strain on mental health services, including consellors and therapists, which he describes as “under a massive strain”.\n<\/p>\n

\n “What mental health does to you is drag you down – the stresses and strains of work, the burnouts, it becomes you,” he added.\n<\/p>\n

\n “For me, it’s a systemic problem across the UK, and that includes Darlington.\n<\/p>\n

\n “It amazes me that we have nothing in place currently in the UK and I want to change that.”\n<\/p>\n

\n He now needs 10,000 signatures to prompt a government response, and 100,000 to trigger a parliamentary debate.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Mental Health Duty Law petition (Image: GOVERNMENT)\n<\/p>\n

\n “Employers put provisions and rules in place for physical health, but not always so much for mental health; that needs to change,” added Josh.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Mental health is a prevalent issue in the North East – the rate of suicide in men under the age of 50 is one of the highest across the UK.\n<\/p>\n

\n “This is for the next generation of people. It’s a big problem now but, unfortunately, it will just become worse and worse.”\n<\/p>\n

\n “This isn’t a taboo topic; it should be talked about more, and I want to change the narrative,” he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Darlington resident has contacted his MP, Lola McEvoy, to try and get her support for the Mental Health Duty Law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Biggins, 29, has launched a petition, looking to require workplaces, schools, healthcare, housing, justice and public services…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":["post-800803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}