Cornwall Mental Health Summit: what would you ask the panel?

If you could put one question about mental health in Cornwall to a room full of the people who run the services, what would it be? That chance is open now, but only for the next week.

A Mental Health Summit will bring a panel of mental health experts together next month to look at some of the issues facing Cornwall residents. It takes place on Friday 30 October and will be live-streamed on Cornwall Council’s Facebook and YouTube channels.

The event will bring together the authorities, agencies and organisations involved in mental health services and in supporting people in mental distress.

Questions wanted before 5 October

Residents are being asked to submit a question now, so that host Seb Noble (BBC Spotlight political reporter) can make sure the panel covers the issues people in Cornwall are actually facing.

Questions can be sent through the Let’s Talk Cornwall Mental Health Summit page until 9am on Monday 5 October. That’s when the key themes will be picked out, and they will form the basis of the Summit’s discussions.

What the council says

Cornwall Council Leader, Cllr Leigh Frost, said: “Mental health and wellbeing affects every community, every family and every generation. This summit will provide an opportunity to hear directly from experts, listen to residents and work together with partners on our shared ambition to improve mental wellbeing across Cornwall.”

Cllr Thalia Marrington, Cornwall Council’s Cabinet lead for Community Safety and Public Health, said the aim was “to bring the key people together to identify and help deliver solutions to the ongoing issues Cornwall is dealing with.”

She added: “The open conversation will be an opportunity to build a shared understanding of the challenges, opportunities and responsibilities across the whole system.”

Work already underway

The Summit sits alongside several pieces of work already in progress. Cornwall’s Director of Public Health, Dr Eunan O’Neill, said:

“Significant work is already underway through this year’s Director of Public Health Annual Report, the Mental Health Needs Assessment and the Suicide Prevention Strategy review. The summit will complement and strengthen these programmes ensuring we listen to what matters to our residents and work together to support mental wellbeing.”

What the Summit hopes to achieve

After the event, the council hopes there will be:

• A clear, evidence-based overview of mental health, mental wellbeing and suicide prevention in Cornwall.
• Greater awareness of the factors that influence mental wellbeing, including housing, employment, community connection, poverty and discrimination.
• A Cornwall Mental Health Declaration, designed to make sure all the organisations involved in Cornwall’s mental health services are aligned and working towards the same goals.

The questions that come in over the next few days will decide where that conversation starts.

📷A female walker paddles in the calm surf on the beach at Praa Sands, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.