With the approach of spring, the birds are singing by 5am, loud enough to wake me, but way too early to get up.

I drift back to sleep trying to identify the songs and birds until the sunshine filters through the curtain and the soft, yet bright light tells me it’s time to get up.

The birds’ song has put me in the mood for a walk, one of the things I do to keep feeling well during lockdown.

We’ve all felt the stress and strain to varying degrees, but one in four people suffer from mental illness.

Sadly though, the mental health service is often the first area which loses out when budgets are tight.

I know only too well from correspondence and phone calls from residents that loneliness, stress and anxiety can feed other mental health issues.

Mental health issues are real, yet do not get the same recognition as physical health problems.

This can make other support, such as claiming appropriate benefits harder.

The mental health service has long been a ‘Cinderella’ service, lacking the funding and resources to adequately help patients.

There seems to be a ‘risk-averse’ approach to avoiding possible legal action with form-filling, which can be a box-ticking exercise during a patient’s therapy time.

The answer is to properly fund mental health services.

At a local level councils can play their role in helping people’s mental well-being too.

There are many ways local authorities can help, by supporting youth support organisations such as Crossover in Liss and the Kings Arms at Alton and Petersfield – all the more crucial since Hampshire County Council cut funding to youth services.

These cuts have put extra pressure on overstretched Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services where there was an 18-month waiting list before Covid.

Local councils can and do support our sports clubs, by making sure they have enough funding to get through the Covid crisis.

Alton and other towns and villages have helped their sports clubs during the Covid crisis, but sadly East Hampshire District Council chooses not to pass on any government aid to our town and parish councils.

But I am pleased that there is support for active walking and cycling strategies at both the district and county councils.

Besides exercise we must also promote the arts which play such an important role in maintaining our mental health.

Gardening is great therapy too, the recent scheme to licence planting of East Hampshire verges is very welcome.

Alton and Villages Local Action for Nature and Petersfield Community Garden, to name but two, are wonderful organisations that benefit both people and wildlife.

As we see the light at the end of the Covid-tunnel we must play our roles at national and local government to promote residents’ mental health in all possible ways. But we will never achieve equality for mental health with an under-funded NHS.

Helpful information about mental health problems can be found on the MIND website: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/