Thank you very much for contacting me about Time to Talk Day.
My colleagues and I in the Welsh Conservatives fully appreciate that this has been a very challenging time for everybody and that the pandemic, along with the associated restrictions, has exposed the importance of improving mental health and wellbeing in Wales, as well as the importance of creating supportive communities.
I also understand that lockdowns can be detrimental to mental health and wellbeing, and that people who do not have access to support are at risk of being overwhelmed. During the first lockdown, demand for mental health care changed abruptly with fewer seeking help, despite coping with increased isolation and stress.
In Wales, more than half of Welsh adults and three quarters of young people said that their mental health had generally worsened during the early months of the pandemic, and while anxiety about the pandemic has generally fallen among UK adults, loneliness more than doubled from 10 per cent in March 2020, to 26 percent just a year later.
I therefore fully endorse the use of community hubs and voluntary sector networks to increase mental wellbeing, as well as ensuring that communities are able to reach out when members are lonely and anxious. I am, however, concerned that important community assets are being stripped away and sold without protections in Wales. My colleagues and I therefore stood on a Welsh Parliamentary Manifesto pledge in 2021 to introduce a Right to Bid which would support the takeover of community assets, particularly those threatened with closure or development. The UK Conservative Government also announced its Community Ownership Fund last year, which applies across the UK and ends in 2024/25, so we would urge community and voluntary organisations in Wales to bid for this important match funding.
Finally, I also believe that the new Welsh mental health strategy, due this year, must also include the importance of community assets and networks to support a post-COVID society. Rest assured that my colleague, James Evans MS, Shadow Minister for Mental Health, will continue to press the Deputy Minister for Mental Health, Lynne Neagle MS, on these important issues.
Thank you again for taking the time to write to me.