Mental Health Strategy 2021-2031

Part of Ministerial Statement – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 11:15 am on 29 June 2021.

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Photo of Robin Swann Robin Swann UUP 11:15, 29 June 2021

I thank the Member for his point. I have been clear that this is not about having to shift funding within the Department of Health. There is no point in my robbing Peter to pay Paul to deliver a mental health service while, at the same time, underfunding or reducing funding and support to another part of the health service. The last number of statements that I have made to the House in regard to elective care, no more silos and the work that needs to be done now in the mental health strategy indicate 10 years of underinvestment in the entire health service. The £1·2 billion that we have indicated that we need over the next 10 years to correct that underfunding is the cost that we paid for those 10 years of underinvestment. If we had kept level, or at least kept with a realistic service provision and support mechanisms over the past 10 years, that need and that capital expense now would not be so big.

This is about taking tough decisions and having tough conversations at Executive level. If our block grant from Westminster does not increase, there is a need to find the money and invest it in the people of Northern Ireland. You cannot have a sustainable workforce if their physical or mental health will not allow them to go to work. You cannot have a sustainable education service if the children who attend it or the teachers or people supporting them are not physically or mentally able to carry out the work that they need to do. We need to invest in our health service for the future. We need to see Northern Ireland travel in a direction where we can support education and our economy, but we have to do that with a healthy, physically and mentally able population. We need to start that now by investing in the strategy and delivering the 35 outcomes that have been indicated through the co-production and co-design.