Andrew took part in the Prime Minister's Covid-19 update in the House of Commons yesterday, and has provided the below update on his Facebook page. You can watch a video of Andrew's question to the PM online here: https://www.facebook.com/andrewpercyofficial
Yesterday I raised with the Prime Minister the important issue of supporting people's mental health during this coming lockdown. In particular, I raised the issue of those suffering anxiety issues and the really valuable talking therapies services that are available. I have provided some useful links at the bottom of mental health support.
I am very reluctant about another lockdown and the Government has done everything it can to avoid this and I know this will have an impact on many, especially their mental health.
However, I cannot ignore the increasing warnings from our local hospitals about the worrying rise in Covid admissions locally and the danger this poses to our local NHS if something is not done. Some of the data from our area in the past couple of weeks has been worrying and doing nothing means letting the virus rip through communities meaning more deaths, more pressure on our local NHS and the need for even more dramatic action in the future. There are no good choices for governments at the moment and that is why across Europe countries are having a second lockdown.
That is why I will with a great deal of reluctance support these measures until December 2nd.
However, we must also remain positive and there are good reasons to think there is light at the end of the tunnel. The launch of mass testing in Liverpool this week offers a way forward for the future and the news on the vaccine front appears to be increasingly positive. As a government and a country we have led the way in investing in vaccine research and funded the work necessary for the increasing number of drugs coming forward to treat Covid.
We have also built, from pretty much nothing, what is now basically the biggest testing capacity in Europe, but the track and trace system is still not performing and this lockdown period must be used to put right those issues.
This will come to an end, there are positives to look forward to. We must all do what is necessary now.
In terms of the rules, people can continue with their support bubbles and I know some of them may not appear to make sense. However, there are no perfect divisions of what is definitely OK and what is definitely not. There just simply aren't.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/mental-health-helplines/
https://northlincolnshireccg.nhs.uk/choose-the-right-service/get-help-sooner/talking-therapies/
https://www.eastridingofyorkshireccg.nhs.uk/mentalhealth/talking-therapies/
