Sarah Champion MP is supporting Young Minds’ #HelloYellow campaign for World Mental Health Day.

Today is World Mental Health Day and I’m proud to support Young Minds’ #HelloYellow campaign.

Young Minds is a charity committed to improving the wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. They are encouraging communities, schools and offices across the country to wear something yellow this World Mental Health Day (10th October).

Recent research shows the scale of mental health problems affecting young people. According to the Millennium Cohort Study, published in September, almost a quarter of girls and one in ten boys report symptoms of depression at the age of 14.

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) estimated that more than 50,000 children and teenagers across the country are not receiving the specialist mental health care they need.

The Prime Minister has described the lack of support for people with mental health problems as a “burning injustice” and said that “for too long mental illness has been… dangerously disregarded as a secondary issue to physical health”.

Unfortunately, as usual with this Government, it’s just a lot of hot air. New funding was pledged for mental health programmes but money is not reaching the frontline.

I am among 160 Labour MPs that signed a letter urging the Prime Minister to put her money where her mouth is and commit her Government to ring-fencing mental health spending. It’s time for the Government to take meaningful action on mental health.