Member's statement: Child Mental Health Services
Member's statement by Mrs Ciara Ferguson on .
- MLA
- Mrs Ciara Ferguson
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 3 March 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Child Mental Health Services
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4825679
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Child mental health and access to services is an issue that is close to my heart as a mother, a sister, an aunt and a grandmother. If any one of us were to review the child and adolescent mental health statistics, we would see that the situation is just not acceptable. Consistently, over 2,000 children and young people are waiting for an initial assessment, and over 1,200 are waiting way past nine weeks — sometimes six months and sometimes a year. The recent statistics for the Western Health and Social Care Trust area, at 31 December 2024, show that 513 children and young people throughout that area are waiting for an assessment, while the figure for the year before was 372. It is not getting any better. Additionally, almost 70% — 353 of the 513 — of those referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) are experiencing unacceptable delays in accessing support, with waiting times exceeding the nine-week target. I have written to the Minister of Health to ask for his assessment of those recent statistics, and I am sure that he will share my assessment that any hold-up in that regard is deeply disappointing. The outworkings of those statistics can have significant consequences for the children and young people who are waiting for help. I speak regularly to parents and grandparents who are watching their loved ones struggle with anxiety, panic attacks, low moods, dealing with bereavement, trauma or emotional difficulties. For young people in crisis, immediate interventions can be paramount to ensuring their recovery. Equally, any considerable delay can discourage them from continuing to seek further much-needed support. Imagine building up the courage to finally ask for help, only to be told that you have to wait, maybe for months. We know that too many young people are now presenting with high levels of complex need. They deserve effective and timely treatment. We have a duty to alleviate their suffering and support them to continue to flourish in education, support, volunteering, employment, building relationships and life more generally. Whilst the mental health strategy that runs until 2031 commits to the promotion of acting early, preventing mental ill-health and providing the right support at the right time, we should all re-emphasise today the importance of getting to grips with the existing delays that continue to happen. I call on the Minister of Health to ensure that no child is left behind. Much support is needed, and we need to ensure that children and young people are supported to get the right care from the right person at the right time.
433 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.02 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.94).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.94 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.74 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.17 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.08 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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