Dean Russell has been campaigning hard this week, speaking face-to-face with local residents about their concerns, and one issue which keeps coming up on the doorstep is mental health and loneliness.
A commitment to supporting older people struggling with isolation is at the heart of Dean’s plan for Watford, which includes not only a three-tier plan to improve mental health support in schools, workplaces, and the community but a specific project to help school pupils and other young people connect with senior citizens.
Dean has a strong track record on mental health. In local government he transformed his Health Committee into a new ‘Health and Wellbeing Partnership’, bringing together NHS, patient, and charity groups to identify and solve local issues together, and laid the foundations for a tenfold increase in mental health funding.