The Coyle siblings
The Coyle siblings

I’ve been hugely touched by the supportive messages, emails and even people stopping me in the street to say they’d been moved by sharing my family story about growing up with a mum with schizophrenia. I spoke about our experiences in a Westminster debate I hosted on reforming the Mental Health Act, a clip of which you can see below. It wasn’t easy for me to open up about it, but I am grateful to have had such a positive responses. More importantly, I hope it will help lead to the real change for thousands of people like mum, and their families, who don’t get the care and support they need.

I’m also grateful to Southwark News for sitting down with me to talk about my campaign. When Parliament returns in September I will work with Rethink Mental Illness and others to press the Government for a timeline for reforming the Act and to publish the White Paper asap!

Read my interview with Southwark News here.

Reforming the Mental Health Act

When I was a toddler my mum developed schizophrenia and did not get the support needed under the 1980s Tory Government. This had a big impact on me and my family. My mum and thousands of others are still let down by a mental healthcare system, which should exist to protect, support and empower people but too often now relies again on detention, compulsion and discrimination. Today I led a Parliamentary debate on reforming the Mental Health Act and spoke about my personal experience. A clip is below and the full debate is online at https://tinyurl.com/MHAdebate. I also wrote about my family experience in today’s Independent which you can read here: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/mental-health-act-schizophrenia-a9020361.html

Posted by Neil Coyle MP on Thursday, July 25, 2019

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