Debate contribution: Community Crisis Intervention Service: Closure

Debate contribution by Mr Gary Middleton on 14 October 2025.

MLA: Mr Gary Middleton
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 14 October 2025
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Opposition Business
Heading: Community Crisis Intervention Service: Closure
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5181212

Text

Thanks to the Members for tabling this motion. We are all aware, some painfully so, that Northern Ireland continues to face a mental health crisis of unprecedented scale. Our region continues to suffer from disproportionately high rates of suicide, self-harm and depression, worsened by poverty, social isolation and intergenerational trauma. Extern's crisis intervention service in Foyle did not close because it was ineffective; in fact, the opposite was true. Since its launch, it supported over 3,500 individuals in distress in out-of-hours care. It was a critical support service that offered safety, listening ears, crisis de-escalation and links to longer-term support. Let us be straight in the Chamber: the intervention service closed because the temporary funding model was piecemeal. Someone needed to say, "We will make this work. We will make this a priority". In a system that talks endlessly about tackling the mental health crisis, the shutters came down. When all of us say that we care about mental health, what does that mean in practice? If it means warm words every few months in the Chamber but cold shoulders when allocating Health budgets, we are not being honest with the public. If it means leaving the community and voluntary sector to beg for survival, year in, year out, we are just adding to the deflation already felt in that sector. I have made the point before about how often we talk about the importance of mental health, about prevention, about the neighbourhood model and about the importance of having accessible services. Here we had a service embedded in the community and, rather than throwing the kitchen sink at it to retain it, it closed. Of course, what will happen is that further pressure will be placed on the health system, which is already bursting at the seams, adding even more pressure into the system. Minister, what alternative support will now be provided, or will our emergency departments, GPs and other services be squeezed even further? It feels that, when it comes to health, everything is now a priority and that therefore nothing is a priority. Extern's crisis intervention service was embedded in our community. It had the trust of the people who needed it most, and those are the very people who have now been let down. We often hear about prevention, but, in this case, short-term savings that come at the expense of long-term well-being are simply not savings at all. Minister, in response to a question for written answer, you said, on 8 October 2025:
"The Community Crisis Intervention Service (CCIS) has had an important role in supporting vulnerable people, especially out of hours."
I urge you, Minister, to support the service going forward.

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

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