Debate contribution: Mental Health Provision in Northern Ireland

Debate contribution by Mr Gary Middleton on 30 September 2024.

MLA

Mr Gary Middleton

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

30 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Mental Health Provision in Northern Ireland

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4563505

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Member who tabled today's motion. From the outset, I join others in remembering all those who have died as the result of suicide and in thinking of their families and friends. I also think of all those who are suffering with mental health issues, be they our family, friends, neighbours or, indeed, people in the Chamber. Mental health affects us all. That is why mental health provision and access to help and support must be a priority for not only the Minister and his Department but the entire Executive and all of us in the Assembly. Our amendment, which my colleague Mrs Dodds moved, speaks to the fact that we need to utilise every resource that we have in order to prioritise resilience and coping mechanisms from an early age. Whilst the motion is right to highlight the need for a cross-cutting approach to suicide and suicide-specific interventions, it is important that we look at poor mental health in the round.

That means cross-departmental working to tackle some of the challenges that bring about mental illness: socio-economic determinants, deprivation, online harms, addiction and trauma. In turn, by tackling those issues, which are mentioned throughout the draft Programme for Government, we can tackle the disparity between suicide rates in the most and least deprived areas and go some way to addressing the poor mental health that faces so many in our community. One of my questions to the Minister is this: what work is he doing proactively in his Department to bring Departments together and to lead the discussions on that front?

It is also alarming and unacceptable that over 1,026 children were waiting for more than nine weeks to see the child and adolescent mental health services at the end of March this year; that was 52% of the children who were waiting. We need to see a plan to address those waiting times. Those children deserve that early intervention. I note that there have been positive programmes, not least through the Department of Education and the Education Authority (EA). The resilience education assisting change to happen (REACH) programme is one such programme for children. It is about building resilience and helping them to deal with some of the challenges that are not only of the past but of the 21st century. We need to see more of that type of work. When we talk about support for those struggling with mental health disorders, it is important to recognise that it affects people of all ages. We cannot progress the discussion without mentioning the issue of access to GPs: it is a fundamental issue that we must address. There has been positive work with the multidisciplinary teams, but we need to see our GP surgeries become hubs for people who present with issues such as mental ill health.

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I thank the Member for his intervention. He is absolutely right: access and knowing where to go is vital. That is why GP surgeries should be one part of the mechanism and should be a hub to ensure that those who present with serious difficulties know that they have a place to turn to. It is also important to note, when we talk about people who slip through the net, that, in many cases, charities and the voluntary sector are vital in ensuring that people have somewhere to go. On Friday, with Foyle MLA colleagues, I attended the opening of a fantastic new facility for a charity called HURT (Have Your Tomorrows), which was established in 2001. It was started through tragedy, but many lives have been saved through that charity. Another charity, which, no doubt, the Minister will have heard of, is the Men's Action Network (MAN). Unfortunately, after 30 years, it has had to close its doors, which means that the 750 men who availed themselves of those services, not least for mental health, have nowhere to go. I call on the Minister to prioritise those issues. Terms such as "invest to save" are bandied about. Sometimes, I do not like that term because, effectively, we are trying to save lives, and we cannot put a value on the cost to a family. I wholeheartedly support the amendment tabled by my colleagues, and I urge people to get behind it. Ultimately, however, whatever motions we pass in the Assembly today, it requires action, and there is an onus on all of us to deliver on those commitments.

746 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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