Dear Mr Burghart
I am disappointed to discover that Brentwood Mind has closed.
The cited reason for closure is NHS cuts of £200,000 per annum, leaving the organisation reliant on reserves, clearly an unsustainable position.
In light of the very public declarations by the Conservative Party concerning increased funding for mental health services, please can you explain the disparity between rhetoric and the reality at a local level.
Yours sincerely
Ann Cardus (Mrs)
My MP's reply covered the following: an apology for the delay in replying and a passing of the buck with a proxy response from the local Clinical Commissioning Group.
Effectively, my take-out is that mental health provision will now be outsourced to a private provider, the Vita Health Group with an "effective increase in investment in mental health." The CCG is also currently sourcing a Mental Health and Wellbeing hub which will be based in Basildon. The use of the word effective before the word investment isn't confidence-inspiring and the establishment of a hub in Basildon doesn't seem to be as convenient for Brentwood-dwellers.
Apparently the CCG was unaware that Brentwood Mind was closing and it seemed to have come as a surprise. The explanation of how and what happened was very opaque.
Burghart then added that he had been aware of the funding cuts after a review of block funding, and "its service users were offered the opportunity to use their newly introduced personal payments with other providers or services." I don't quite know what this means but it indicates that the removal of block funding was directly responsible for the closure of the local Mind provision.
Burghart reiterated that there had been an increase in investment in local mental health provision which we have established earlier will be going to a (newly-formed) private company rather than a well established and experienced charity.
Finally, Mr Burghart hoped I would be able to "access the help I needed."
Please feel free to re-read my email to my MP. At no point did I indicate I needed any help and I'm not happy that he chose to assume I needed mental health support. How dare he assume that people who care about mental health provision are in need of mental health support? I care about a lot of things, it doesn't mean I'm directly affected, and, even if I were affected, it's deeply inappropriate to assume anything about my health.
The thing that makes it worse, is that a friend, who wrote to Burghart expressing similar concerns, received a carbon copy of his response.
Ctrl C, Ctrl V sums up the caring nature of UK politics today. It sickens and depresses me. I just hope I never need to travel to Basildon for mental health services instead of using a local provider on my doorstep.
