Clause 5
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
3:45 pm
Chris Bryant (Rhondda, Labour)
The hon. Lady is absolutely right. One of our difficulties in persuading mental health services to make that investment and indeed in persuading people to present is associated with the stigma that sometimes attaches to specific communities and individuals. It is a sad fact that a young gay man is six times more likely than a young straight man to commit suicide under the age of 16. By definition, those young people find it difficult to come forward to psychiatric services, because they already feel alienated from society. The more we can do to transform that situation, the better. It is in everybody’s interests. We are light years away from where we were 30 or 40 years ago, as I know from my own experience.