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A leading charity has said mental health must be given the priority it deserves.
Labour leader Ed Miliband made a speech about mental health today at the Royal College of Psychiatrists after the Labour party signed up to the Time to Change pledge.
Time to Change campaign aims to end the stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental health problems.
Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Mind, said:
"Mental health is everyone's business. We are now seeing politicians finally realise that it isn't just the responsibility of health services to support people with mental health problems and that they have their own role to play in changing attitudes.”
Mr Miliband said mental health is "an economic challenge holding back prosperity".
"Because however hard the economic challenges, we cannot forget about people’s quality of life," he said.
"If we want a politics that talks directly to the challenges that British people face in their everyday lives, we cannot allow the silence to continue."
Mr Farmer said:
"Mental health can affect every aspect of a person's life and we need proper commitment from all areas of society if we are to address the inequalities that people with mental health problems face.
"Politicians need to take the initiative along with business leaders, community and faith leaders, schools and the media to give mental health the priority it deserves and help ensure that the one in four of us with mental health problems get the support we need."
Mr Farmer welcomed Labour's commitment to giving mental health the same status as physical health, but added that access to therapies for mental health problems is still patchy.
"We need to see better access to talking therapies, with shorter waiting times, so that people can choose the treatment that is right for them at the time that they need it," he said.
Mr Miliband said politicians from all parties have "maintained an almost complete silence about mental health".
"Only in emergencies and at the extreme end of conditions do we tend to talk about the issue," he said.
"Now there will be some people who say that mental health is the kind of subject we can talk about in the good times, but not when the economy is such a priority.
"In my view, that is the opposite of the truth."
Mr Miliband said the NHS Constitution should be re-written to "create for citizens a new right – for the first time – to psychological therapies that help people recover from conditions like anxiety and depression".
He added: "We need a mental health strategy outside as well as inside the National Health Service. Tackling the culture and changing the way our society treats mental health.
"A One Nation solution will bring together people from every walk of life to address this problem.
"And that’s what I have asked Stephen O’Brien, chair of Barts NHS Trust and Vice President of Business in the Community, to do as he leads our new Mental Health Taskforce.
"We will ask searching questions about the culture of work in Britain, about the impact of inequality, about the way our schools work and relate to their wider communities.
"We will learn from the best of the rest of the world."
For more information on the Time To Change campaign click here
http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/home