Debate contribution: Mental Illness: Reducing Stigma

Debate contribution by Mr Danny Donnelly on 21 January 2025.

MLA

Mr Danny Donnelly

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

21 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Mental Illness: Reducing Stigma

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4749666

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Sinn Féin members for tabling the motion. Alliance is happy to support it. Unfortunately, stigma persists across our society in respect of mental health challenges, including in our political system and sometimes even in the Assembly. All parties in the Assembly should improve their efforts to support friends and colleagues who are experiencing mental ill health. We often hear the phrase "It's OK not to be OK", but many people living with long-term conditions sometimes feel judged, isolated or discriminated against. In 2024, evidence from Inspire, which is launching phase 2 of its If It's Okay campaign in March, highlighted the difficulties that people who experience mental ill health face. For example, 64% of respondents said that they felt shame because of their mental ill health. What we say about mental health matters. That applies particularly to those of us who are in a public role: for example, in the Assembly. Therefore, I encourage all Members to be cautious in their language, especially given the unfortunate history of debates in the Chamber at times. Just yesterday, we heard an MLA recite lyrics from a musical to joke about a marginalised group that experiences higher levels of mental health problems. The levels of mental ill health are higher in Northern Ireland than in the rest of the UK, as Mr Robinson highlighted. We have seen the impact of that in the increase in waiting lists for CAMHS referrals. As other Members have mentioned, it is extremely concerning that more people in Northern Ireland have died through suicide since 1998 than died during the Troubles. We have not seen adequate investment in mental health through departmental resources. Last year, around 7% of the departmental budget was allocated to mental health. That is well behind England at 11·4%, Scotland at 9·4% and Wales at 13·3%. We also have to be aware of the long-standing mental health issues that relate to the Troubles. The trans-generational trauma in our society is a legacy of decades of violent conflict and is likely to persist for decades. Mental health services in Northern Ireland have faced a difficult period over the past few years. In particular, that is a consequence of the political instability that prevented any decisions being taken in this place in five out of the past eight years.

That includes the absence of multi-year budgets, which are essential for long-term planning in our health service.

During the previous, reduced mandate, Minister Swann introduced the mental health strategy 2021-2031. I commend Minister Nesbitt for his efforts to ensure the continued implementation of the strategy. Progress has been made, but more needs to be done. I remain convinced that, on the road that we are taking, we will not see its completion by 2031. At a Health Committee meeting in November, we received an update from the Department of Health on the funding plan for the mental health strategy. It is worrying that the funding allocated in the years since 2021 has increased only slightly compared with the huge increase that is required each year as the strategy develops. Funding is not everything, of course, and one step that the Minister could take is to engage with our experienced community and voluntary organisations on what they can assist with to fully realise that vital strategy. That is a key requirement of the strategy, specifically action 17. As the motion states, we need a work plan, and I look forward to hearing the Minister's suggestions on that and on how the Health Committee can work with him to help deliver it. Another vital issue is the need for anti-stigma and anti-discrimination public awareness and education campaigns. The first action in the mental health strategy outlines what we must do in that respect: increase awareness of the different kinds of mental well-being, mental ill health and mental illness; encourage understanding and acceptance of their impacts; and recognise the signs of mental ill health. We should use public mental ill health education and effective awareness raising as methods of improving public knowledge of the key measures that we all can and should take to look after our well-being and that of others and, most importantly, to reduce stigma through encouraging discourse and dialogue. I appreciate that, on previous occasions, the Minister has indicated that the pressures facing his Department impact on his ability to carry out such public awareness campaigns, so I again encourage him to engage with mental health organisations in our communities, as they do invaluable work, including on public awareness. It is important to emphasise that mental health is not solely a Department of Health issue. Although Health is the primary responsible Department, mental health should be a cross-departmental priority. The Programme for Government (PFG) acknowledges the role of the Department for Communities, for example, in noting the importance of sports in supporting mental and physical health. Ministers have also highlighted the overlap of poor mental health and economic deprivation. I know that one of the Minister's priorities is to focus on health inequalities, and I would like to hear him expand on that in his response. There is no shame in mental ill health or illness. It is like any other sickness. No one would feel ashamed of having asthma or a physical injury, so no one should ever feel ashamed because of their mental health.

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

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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