Mental Health and Wellbeing

This is an excellent initiative, vital.  All people, and especially the young and the disenfranchised must be offered as much support to manage mental health issues as possible.

ACTIVITY CENTRES ARE VITAL.  All Youth Clubs, activity centres and any clubs such like should be reopened or started.  It is madness that there is nowhere for young people to congregate and be who they are, this alone will solve so many mental health problems.

The worst problem that has been intensified by the pandemic is in housing and the high rents that tenants must pay or become homeless. This also applies to those whose mortgages have been defaulted and who are forced to return their homes to the banking institutions for re-purchase (at bargain prices to their friends and cronies). You may not think this is true, but despite the laws against it, it is going on and many families are suffering from the effects of a lack of work and the difficulties in continuing to live in a respectable neighborhood.

The long term answer is to change the tax regime so that the only taxation is on land values and that the returns from earning, investment and purchases have no associated loss due to the government. Obviously this long term solution will take many years to apply. There is a dire need for a shorter term solution too and that must be for the London boroughs to provide temporary housing at no cost to the tenant and with supervision in how the occupiers manage both financially and socially. This itself will provide employment, who will need some short time training before they can again begin to be useful.

The question of money needs to be answered both by the government and through the banks of the boroughs. With electronic money capable of being produced "out of thin air" on request as credit, there should be a system established where the duration of the loans is longer and the banks permitted to cover losses by their making more money, for themselves. To avoid inflation the money must be used for purchase of commercial consumable goods with only a limited part being loaned for temporary accommodation, for which strict regulations will be needed.

Need to scrap the plan to expand Ultra-Low Emission Zone up to North & South Circular roads, definitely tax payers money not well spent! A lot of Londoner's lustihood depend on the ability fo drive their vehicles within London. An extra charge is daylight robbery. The overall environmental impact of vehicles in London is minimal and it is a risk us Londoners willing to take!

If Covid has taught us anything it is the need for more green space. Now that home working is much more common and likely to remain so, some people will move out of London. So there will be less demand for unaffordable new high spec flats. We need to stop building on every patch of available land and make more green spaces.

On another subject, please remember that not all people (particularly seniors and disabled) can cycle or walk. So cars are their only means fo transport. 

Air pollution needs to be tackled. I am struck by how common it is for people to run their car engines when they’re parked - in the supermarket for instance, and I don’t want anyone not to have air con/heating (and I understand cars have been like an extra room for crowded households during lockdown, fair enough) but it just seems like an unthinking thing. So I would like us all to take some responsibility for the pollution by turning off engines where possible

This is a good mission! Some actions that should be included:

Air pollution needs to be cut drastically. During the heat wave I could taste the pollution. We need to be able to act swiftly in exceptional circumstances to prevent motor vehicle access to the most polluted areas, eg, closing central London on days where pollution goes over a certain level, rationing vehicle access like they do in Paris (so people only can drive their vehicles in on alternate days).

More green spaces, vital for mental health as well as physical health. Could some roads be closed and turned into parks, as part of the low traffic neighbourhood plans?

Better housing - councils need to be able to take actual action aganist landlords who overcrowd houses and don't provide sufficient space and sanitation facilities.

Have a campiagn about metabolic health- you will save more lives and have a healthy population.

A clear link has been shown between being overweight and increased likelihood of deaths relating to Covid-19 and other deadly viruses and diseases. And this disproportionally impacts those from BAME backgrounds. Numerous studies have shown that the key to the prevention of weight-gain and the increase in mental health wellbeing is in increasing active travel - particularly cycling.

Active travel has been proven to effective for this because it's a way of people getting the required amount of daily exercise by just travelling (to work, or to the shops, or to see friends and family). There is not enough uptake in cycling for transport among the BAME population in London. In Tottenham (where I live) the majority of the population is from a BAME background and hardly anyone cycles. This is due to the fact that Tottenham (like many other boroughs) lacks a network of protected cycle lanes and has residential streets which act as rat runs for motorists. Unlike driving, cycling is very accessible, cheap and good for personal health and wellbeing. And yet, even after over a decade of speaking to councillors about it, we've seen very little change in Tottenham to enable people to make healthier transport choices such as cycling.

The Mayor of London and TfL needs to have increased control over streets in places like Tottenham where changes are not being made. It's not fair for generations of BAME people to lose out of the benefits of active travel due to the lack of political will of a handful of councillors. The system is broken and it can't go on any longer. 

Also, the £1.2bn Silvertown Motorway Tunnel is going to be built in borough where the population is majority BAME. The Mayor needs to act on decreasing car use - how is this going to achieve that? And what the increase in air pollution and noise in the boroughs where the tunnel runs through? The project needs to be cancelled immeadiately.

More thought going in to the future of transport within London. Silvertown tunnel may have been sensible when first thought of, but no longer. Why are they sticking to it? Transport is changing fast with new tech, electric scooters/bikes/motorbikes and public transport which is safe for virus current and future. All a new tunnel will do is encourage more hgv's and other polluting vehicles through high density population areas. An increase in safe facilities for these new and current pollution free modes such as regular bicycles is essential for investment. Just because a new tunnel will be self financing is NOT the reason to go ahead.

Also protect green spaces within the city. Force developers to allow more of these, and on roof space. Cotrol cronyism within planned developments, backhanders whether obvious or hidden should be heavily punished. Not simply whitewashed by Govt. (housing secretary a case in point, an apology is not enough. they should never be in politics again.)

Looking at Doctors and hospital services in order to provide this service more efficiently to eliminate the large number of non attendance appointments. One change made during lock down is that we now need to phone the doctor first to have a phone assessment before an appointment is made. This process can work well and should be considered going forward.

1) More affordable housing

2) Conserve open spaces in heavily built up zones

3) Improve mental heath services, support and treatment

4) Support food banks for the most needy

5) Make immigration procedures simpler and visas free for essential service workers e.g. NHS staff

6) Neighbourly behaviour that we have seen during lockdown

There's a start

Fred2

Priorities of the Disabled and Blind persons should be first on your list of changes 

To often cars etc park on pavements 

No carecor considerations for these vulnerable citizens who already have to deal with being Disabled or Blind 

Sort it out Now ...

Better health and wellbeing starts with an end to the tyrannical Covid-19 response.  Stop the unnecessary fear and authoritarian measures.  It is totally immoral how the govt destroyed the economy and removed personal liberties and freedoms on the back of a this wildly exaggerated threat.

Just about every prediction, especially Neil Ferguson's, was completely and dramatically inaccurate, yet the govt carries on like bodies are piling up in the streets, rather than the truth - that the hospitals are below capacity, and when calculating excess mortality, 2019-20 is only the eighth worst season in the last twenty-six. (https://hectordrummond.com/2020/07/17/another-jaw-dropping-graph/)

The mainstream media and the govt are blocking open and honest discussion, and colluding with censorship of alternative views. 
We should all understand that the censorship of all doctors speaking out about the curative value of Hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and vitamin C is due to the fact that a cure would threaten the validity for a vaccine, particularly mandated or coercive. 

Please open the business, stop the restrictions, forget about social distancing and bouncers at supermarkets. stop the censorship, stop authoritarian measures, stop all lockdowns - lightening, local or full, and let us take care of our own health, with bodily autonomy, and our own informed risk assessment built on truth rather than lies.  Stop forcing isolation on people, and stop closing off hospitals and homes to family. This is criminal.

I want the old normal back please.

Close the roads to motor traffic (including scooters and motorbikes) on Sundays - that will encourage cycling and walking

Regards Covid-19, Prof. Austan Goolsbee, an economics adviser to Obama’s administration, observed: “The countries that prioritized health not only had better health outcomes, they had better economic outcomes too.”** 

The above echoed by Oxford's Prof. Wren-Lewis.

And as Germany’s central bank observed in June: “The behavior of consumers—and enterprises—became increasingly cautious. Rising uncertainty, including with regard to income prospects, subdued the propensity to spend, even on many goods that were not subject to lockdown.”***

Germany has been far more successful handling the virus than Britain.

So, Britain and therefore London needs to prioritise getting the virus under control. If that demands people staying off work longer and children not returning to school so soon, so be it.

Prof. Goolsbee has counselled US policy makers to prioritize public health and continue providing government sustenance until the pandemic is under control and the economy can safely reopen. The debt burden will grow, he says, but not beyond the limits of a recovered American economy to pay it back over time. 

Johnson’s government, like Trump’s, has its own central bank and currency. So can do precisely what Goolsbee advises and continue to support people on furlough until the virus is under control.

Space has got to improve, space to exercise, play, and learn. Space that is clean and warm in winter. Space that is shared by all and not just by the most needy in crisis. Libraries and community halls have fulfilled many of these needs but need substantially increased funding.

I won't repeat many of the excellent points which have already been made by other contributors, but I am concerned that the examples of what the mission may mean in practice do not include an emphasis upon meeting the needs of physically disabled Londoners, shielding or otherwise.  People with physical - as well as mental - disabilities are typically some of the most excluded people in society, socially isolated, on the lowest incomes, with the coldest homes and the least ability to buy nourishing food.  They will be left behind by a mission which is pretty generalist in its approach as presented here.

How will the recently announced decision to dissolve Public Health England and replace it with an alternative affect the recovery mission? How relevant will the PHE "Beyond the Data Report" be now?

Alongside the personal physical, mental and social effects of COVID and the inequalities that has raised, we also have the ongoing and more visible issue of racist policing. There have been far too many examples in recent weeks of the unacceptable behaviour of an insitutionally racist police force. Despite reactions and arguments from those responsible for the culture of the police to deny racism, we have been presented with one example after another of racial profiling. The justifications used by officers for stopping BAME people have been both ludicrous and indefensible.

The mission to "recover", if it is to have any chance of success, will need to be holistic in its approach and to include ALL factors that have a negative impact on our collective health and welfare as Londoners. Supporting a recovery that excludes the ways in which we are routinely and regularly let down by those with the power to police us and to exert their "authority" in unacceptable ways, will be a recovery that is unlikely to succeed.

Of equal importance is our environment. We need increased efforts to improve air quality as this also has a negative, and unequal impact on some Londoners over others. With the predicted changes in use of buildings, offices and the continued need for affordabe housing, the "recovery" will need to prioritise people over property developers and the relentless pursuit of profit from land. Greater access must be granted to lower income families to outside spaces that can be converted to allotments.

Whatever shape or form of the recovery mission, there are many issues that intersect and overlap that will need to be addressed to improve our health, The opportunity must not be wasted.

Mental health has never been so important. Access to community activities that promote wellbeing are vital. When a person's mental health is suffering it doesn't matter how many initiatives, information, green spaces, free travel are available. It's a struggle to get past the front door or turn on a computer if you have one. Take each demographic and look at their barriers and needs. I am personally concerned about safety for women to enjoy outdoor spaces when winter is here, if sports facilities or gyms are closed.

Access to healthy food is also a concern with the rise in the cost of living. Eat out to help out scheme has increased the number of young people consuming junk food so now is the time to address the balance and create a positive message about how healthy food helps a healthy mind