The Minister of State knows what accident and emergency departments are like. I am sure she has been in them. The nurses who spend a lot of their time training and engaging in continuous professional development are forced to nurse patients in conditions that when I describe them as being slightly less than ideal, I am being very kind to the Government. The Minister of State knows what accident and emergency is like. It is chaotic and noisy and there are bright lights and a lot of activity. It is hard for people who really need to be in accident and emergency to visit an accident and emergency department. It is so tough for the healthcare workers - our nurses and our doctors trying to do their best in a system that is overcrowded with nurses forced to nurse people on chairs or on trolleys who are waiting, waiting and waiting for a bed. I represented psychiatric nurses in 2006 when A Vision for Change was launched. There was no place for people in mental health distress then but the Minister of State, her Government and previous Governments have ensured that what was deemed to be a crisis in 2006 is now even beyond that. Accident and emergency is no place for a person who needs psychiatric care. It is no place for him or her and yet that is where he or she ends up. The Minister of State knows that this is where he or she is going to end up because there is no other door. I have heard her talk about the Government's "no wrong door" policy. There is no door - only accident and emergency - and that is where these people have to go. I spoke to a woman in my constituency last week whose son was experiencing suicidal ideation. She was absolutely petrified as any mother would be so she took the only option open to her and brought her son to accident and emergency in Beaumont Hospital. They sat there for nine hours. When I tell the Minister of State that this contributed to making that young man's mental ill health worse, it really did. He entered in crisis and came out even worse with a letter that was completely meaningless. It was a referral to CAMHS for an appointment he may never get. He will be aged out before it even happens. I ask the Minister of State to not just support this motion act but to act on it.

Sentiment score: -0.34