Tackle poverty if you really want to reduce the numbers off sick with mental health issues - Yorkshire Post Letters

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Mel Stride, has managed to demean those suffering from work related stress, depression and other mental illnesses by implying they are just feeling a little 'bluesy' and are suffering the 'normal ups and downs of life'.

He has managed to insult doctors by accusing them of 'over-medicalising' normal worries as mental health conditions. He has implied they are guilty of box ticking by saying those 'feeling a little bit depressed' are not capable of work, thus suggesting GPs are signing people off work unnecessarily. He says we should have a 'grown up conversation' about the issues.

Well Mr Stride, the 'grown up conversation' has just started. Dan Poulter, a doctor, psychiatrist, ex-Health Minister and Conservative MP for 14 years has just resigned from the Tory Party and joined Labour.

He said: 'The health service has ceased to be an area of priority for the Conservative Party'. He went on: 'One of the things I really like about Labour party policy on the NHS is the focus on the social determinants of poor health and actually recognising that tackling poverty, poor housing, all those issues, particularly giving children from poorer backgrounds better chances and focusing on child health, that is something Labour understands that Conservatives really don't.'

So, Mr Stride, vilifying the vulnerable and those suffering from mental illness, seemingly for political purposes, is not a 'grown up conversation'. A 'grown up conversation', as Dan Poulter implies, should be about reducing the poverty and destitution which causes the very mental health problems Mel Stride appears to demean.