Total respect to Labour MP Jess Philips
I speak as a former doctor. There is still a terrible stigma against mental illness. At some stage of our lives one in four of us will have a mental illness. What I say here applies doubly to our children.
Many people have committed suicide because the mental illness became very severe. In near enough all cases had the patient gone and seen their GP sooner the patient could have been saved. When I was a medical student and junior doctor I lost a few friends who were professional colleagues who had mental health problems, they did a damn good job of hiding it! Yet we only ever found out when we saw the suicide note or seen them in the mortuary about to undergo an autopsy.
Imagine how I felt when I went to attend an autopsy and when they uncovered the body to find it’s one of my friends!
In such cases, these medical staff did a really good job of it! I each case the suicide note said that they were too afraid to seek help. So negative comments are far from helpful.
She is to be admired for coming out with this.
Total respect to her.
