Debate contribution: Victims and Survivors’ Groups: Funding
Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on .
- MLA
- Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 8 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Victims and Survivors’ Groups: Funding
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5600474
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I absolutely recognise that it is challenging for our mainstream health service to pick that up. At the moment, the services are not fit for purpose to get people the help and support that they need when they need it. The waiting lists are too long. I know that the Health Minister is looking particularly at that issue. It is part of the challenge that we face. If somebody is going through an application process in which they have to go through their experience again, that can be deeply re-traumatising, understandably so. That is even more the case when, often, they are trying to articulate the impact of that event on the mental health trauma and post-traumatic stress that they are going through. When they are at that point, they need that help almost immediately. If you go through a GP to get that support, you are likely to be waiting for a sustained period, sadly, unless you are at absolute crisis point. That is why victims and survivors' groups are seeing a significant increase in demand. From talking to some of the groups, I know that demand has increased by as much as 30% to 40% from people applying to some of those schemes. There is a need there. We have always fought hard to protect the budget for victims and survivors from reductions or cuts elsewhere, but the reality is that, with rising costs, that budget is getting more and more squeezed. That is why I have been having a series of discussions to see what we can do, not just to work with the Health Department but, being realistic, how we can get additional resource to victims and survivors' groups.
283 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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