The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on access to mental health support services for those in isolated and rural areas on 20th May 2025, during a discussion on declining life expectancies and poverty related inequalities:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I welcome His Majesty’s Government’s commitment to bringing forward a child poverty strategy. The interaction between mental ill-health and poverty is well known. Will the strategy address access to vital mental health support services, especially for those in more remote rural areas where they are difficult to access?
Baroness Merron (Lab, DHSC): The right reverend Prelate is quite right to draw attention to mental health impacts and the inequality of their incidence. As I mentioned, there has to be a cross-government approach because if we address it through health alone, we will not succeed. Factors such as poor housing, low income, worklessness and disability, as well as ill health and many other factors, affect healthy life expectancy. That is why we are approaching it not by a separate strategy, but by a mission-led approach.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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