‘Horrific’: Nick Ferrari in shock as Shadow Minister reveals a uni student takes their life every five days

10 October 2022, 11:14

Shadow Minister reveals a university student takes their life every five days

Labour’s Shadow Mental Health Minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan discussed the “alarming” findings of research into the mental health of university students around the UK, with Nick Ferrari on Breakfast at LBC.

The Shadow Mental Health Minister revealed that a university student takes their life every five days, among a list of other damning findings from research conducted by the Labour Party.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, who works in A&E, discussed the results with Nick Ferrari on Breakfast at LBC on Mental Health Awareness Day on Monday.

She said: “We spoke to universities up and down the country and we are so alarmed to find that over 200,000 students sought support for their mental health across the UK in 2020-2021.

“Most alarming is that every five days one student takes their life, and we have seen a threefold increase in the number of students seeking support for their mental health, which is actually why we are asking the government to back our preventative plan.

“We have really good policies that were announced at conference…that would actually mean people can get the help that they need.”

The Shadow Minister explained that Labour would “ensure that there is an open access mental health hub in every single community for under 25s where there doesn't even have to be a referral” and “will make sure there is a counsellor in every school”.

Dr Allin-Khan added that they “will employ 8,500 new mental health staff within the first term in office, and we will ensure that mental health gets the ring fenced budget that it deserves”.

In shock, Nick asked: “Just to clarify Rosena, did you say a student takes his or her life every five days?”

“Every five days”, she confirmed. “That’s what our research shows.”

Nick continued: “If I’m getting my sums right, that’s around 70 a year, that’s horrific!”

Referring to another point he previously discussed on LBC, Nick asked the Shadow Mental Health Minister: “How concerned are you that in some instances the parents of some of those children are not informed of their children's mental health crises because of course the person is over the age of 18?”

Dr Allin-Khan said: “You’re absolutely right Nick, people are over the age of 18 so by law nobody in their family needs to be informed."

She continued: “This is deeply distressing to families because they find that their loved one has taken their own life and they’re like, ‘I didn’t even know that they were unwell’, which is why I think we have to have this preventative approach. That’s our watchword in the Labour Party.”

The Shadow Minister said: “Fundamentally the way around it is to prevent people feeling like they have no choice but to take their own life in the first place, and that’s by adopting a truly preventative approach.”

She added that mental health issues cost the UK economy £117bn a year, in one year a million people sought help and their cases were closed before they received any treatment, a quarter of mental health beds have been cut since 2010, and that some children are waiting in A&E in mental health crisis for 79 hours.

The Shadow Mental Health Minister stressed that she didn’t want “mental health to be a political football” but “unfortunately a lack of investment in mental health services have now left our young people and people of every age very very vulnerable, very very exposed, and the cost of living crisis is only exacerbating this.”

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