Debate contribution: Mental Illness: Reducing Stigma

Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on 21 January 2025.

MLA

Mr Robbie Butler

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

21 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Mental Illness: Reducing Stigma

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4749674

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Members from Sinn Féin who tabled the motion, particularly Órlaithí Flynn from West Belfast. Órlaithí is one of those visible and consistent champions who speak about mental health and suicide prevention. I have worked with Órlaithí probably since we became MLAs, and we cross-pollinate on many all-party groups (APGs) with that interest at heart. In 2025, it is really good to hear collectively from the parties here — some of the independents will hopefully partake in the debate shortly — that we are facing in the same direction. The starting point is for everybody to recognise that the Assembly is limited, as every legislature in the world is limited, in what it can and will deliver, but the fact remains that we have to deliver as much as we can on the promises that we make. I hope that, in my time and before I leave here, if there can be a legacy from the Assembly, I will be able to say not that I can put my name on that but that I was part of transforming the face of mental health in Northern Ireland. Mental health problems exist for a multiplicity of reasons. We cannot neglect the fact that we have a past — the Troubles — and high levels of poverty and political disengagement. Until we, as people with the power to make change, learn that all those things play a part to the detriment of people's lives, we consign future generations to more of the same. We need to take the lead. We need to be careful with our language; I agree with Danny Donnelly, who has a professional background in the field as a mental health nurse. We have to take the lead consistently and demonstrate that by example in every debate. We can be robust and hold one another to account, but, if we label, sling mud and call one another things, we are hypocrites when we tell everybody else to do something different. That is just the way that it is. I thank, again, the proposer of the motion for recognising that my leader, Mike Nesbitt, the Health Minister, can probably legitimately lay claim to being the politician who has driven the topic of mental health in this arena. I will not reiterate the brilliant words that have been used so far on tackling the stigma, but I want to address something that Órlaithí picked up on: the unintended although maybe not malicious stuff. I know that it exists because I chair the all-party group on disability. I speak to young people from the disability community, and the biggest threat that they face is not the facilitation of their disability but the discrimination that they experience, which is probably sometimes unintentional. That has a real impact on their mental health. Take alcoholics and drug addicts: the use of language about the people in that comorbid space is disgusting. It fries my head at times to see people who should know better descending into a space where they should not be, which compounds the difficulty that the addicts find themselves in. I will pitch for men today, because, of every five suicides, four are men. Some people do not know that. Men rightly come under a lot of pressure, and they should be called into question, particularly on the issue of violence against women and girls. However, the men involved in such behaviour are not real men. Real men struggle, cry and reach out, but the world tells them to, "Man up. Pull yourself together. Catch yourself on". Those are all slurs and derogatory remarks that stop men from reaching out for help when they need it. There is unintended discrimination in pregnancy that Órlaithí will know about very well. Sometimes women face the greatest threat to their mental health during pregnancy. About 20% of women suffer from perinatal mental health issues. Sometimes they are not asked the right questions by professionals because everything centres on the baby. We know that pregnancy is a precious time, but are the right questions being asked, even in the professional sphere? I wish that they had much more time. Places like the Prison Service, which I spoke about yesterday, are highly charged atmospheres in which to work. The mental pressure and distress that those women and men come under is not recognised in the Civil Service code of conduct. The sickness policies are not fit for purpose, and we need to see changes to address the reality of the mental health struggle for people across Northern Ireland.

763 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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