Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg announced that he will be establishing and chairing a new Mental Health Taskforce, which will include Cabinet Ministers from across the coalition.

The Liberal Democrats have been campaigning on mental health issues for many years, with a focus on bringing treatment for mental health problems in line with physical health and ending years of discrimination.

You can back our campaign to help us stamp our mental health stigma here.

In October this year, Nick Clegg announced a £120 million investment in mental health, which will include the introduction in April 2015 of the first ever waiting time standards for mental health in the NHS.

Nick said:

“Mental Health affects every aspect of our lives. One in four people in the UK will experience a mental health problem and it costs the country more than £100 billion. This is too big an issue for the NHS to deal with alone.

“The whole of Government needs to combine its efforts and pool its resources to help the millions of people whose mental health condition is preventing them from getting on in life.

“For far too long mental health has been in the shadows and many people have suffered in silence as a result.

“It is time to turn a corner on outdated attitudes and bring mental health issues out into the open. It is time that the whole of society started providing the care and support to those with mental health conditions in the same way that they would to those with a physical condition.”

Mental health issues such as stress or depression are now the leading cause of illness in the workplace, with more than eleven million working days lost last year.

Liberal Democrat Care Minister Norman Lamb is calling on big businesses to focus more on the mental well-being of their employees.

The taskforce will meet within days and urgently discuss how we can improve mental health services for young people, welfare and employment issues and how we can improve crisis care.re mental health problems ending up in police cells and prisons.