AQO 1132/22-27 Oral question to the Minister of Health
To ask the Minister of Health for an update on the Mental Health Strategy 2021-2031.
Asked by Sian Mulholland MLA on 7 November 2024
- Answered
- Oral
- Answered in the Chamber
- Tabled
- 7 November 2024
- Answer due by
- 18 November 2024
- Answered
- 18 November 202411 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Health
- Priority question
- No
Answer
Answered in the Assembly Chamber on 18 November 2024. Extract from the Official Report (Hansard), including any supplementary questions:
Mr Nesbitt
Delivery of the mental health strategy has been taking place within an extremely challenging financial context, using existing limited resources to take forward actions. As a result, the strategy is being implemented through annual delivery plans that set year-on-year priorities and actions. While the number of actions that can be taken forward is limited due to the funding position, good progress has been made in taking forward a number of areas, including implementation of the community perinatal mental health service across the region — teams are now in place in all trusts — and establishing the regional mental health service, including the appointment of the head of the service and a service user consultant as well as preparatory work for the formation of a regional collaborative board. Work is ongoing to embed a mental health outcomes framework within Encompass, as it is rolled out. There is the development of a three-year early intervention and prevention action plan and the completion and publication of an independent mental health workforce review, with work under way to begin planning the implementation of key recommendations. Additional investment of £2 million in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to enhance existing provision and alleviate pressures is under way, as is work to scope and develop a digital mental health service action plan. Finally, work is under way to commission a review of the scope, scale and capacity of the community and voluntary sector to ensure that it is fully integrated into the delivery of mental health services, building on the previous report on the community and voluntary sector's collective voice. In the current year, our priorities are a continued focus on early intervention; developing a plan to maximise the role of the community and voluntary sector; the continued development of the regional mental health service; and stabilising and growing the workforce.
Ms Mulholland
Thank you, Minister, for that. According to a senior police officer whom I was speaking to recently, there has been a spike in suicides among males in the Causeway Coast and Glens area. Is your Department aware of that, and does it take an approach that looks at things through a rural lens and the effect that isolation may have among young men? Is there anything specific?
Mr Nesbitt
I thank the Member. I am personally not aware of the spike that she referred to, but I assure her that the Department, in all its actions, is keen, eager and determined to look at rural impacts. That runs across all the activities of Health and Social Care.