DAN Jarvis, MP for Barnsley Central, has joined 15 other Yorkshire and Humberside MPs in signing an open letter calling for more funding for Childline.
A total of 130 MPs have asked that Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, allocate money to the charity’s Are You There? campaign. The funding would be from the £300m pledged by the government to be spent on helping mental health in young people.
Dan Jarvis and his peers are pushing for a greater number of volunteers for Childline and better training for the people answering calls.
GPs in Barnsley see increasing numbers of people seeking support for mental health conditions such as depression. Around 50 per cent of lifelong mental illnesses start before the age of 14 and up to half of those are preventable with appropriate treatment.
