Welsh Youth Parliament Member Tegan Skyrme has spoken about how hard it can be for disabled people to get support with their mental health.
Tegan is one of two Welsh Youth Parliament Members currently supported by Learning Disability Wales. You can find out more about the Welsh Youth Parliament and the work of both Tegan and Georgia here.
Speaking at last week’s meeting of the Welsh Youth Parliament, Tegan shared her view that not enough attention is paid to the way that the challenges disabled people face can affect their mental health, and how it is hard for them to get support when they need it. Tegan also drew attention to the fact that many mental health professionals do not understand how mental health difficulties might look different in disabled people:
“We need to ensure that all mental health services are educated about disability and how disability and mental health issues can co-exist and, sadly, a lot of the time do. I know from my own experience that having a visual impairment has definitely had a negative impact on my mental health. We need to make sure that all our resources are screen reader accessible and that there are easy read versions available.”
Tegan also emphasised how important it is to listen to disabled people about what they need and how to make things better. “Those of us with disabilities have a lot to say. I hope that you are ready to listen”.
You can watch the whole speech here:
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