Debate contribution: Birch Hill Centre for Mental Health

Debate contribution by Ms Sian Mulholland on 18 November 2025.

MLA

Ms Sian Mulholland

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

18 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Birch Hill Centre for Mental Health

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5244988

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank Mr Kearney for bringing this issue to the Floor. I echo the comments made by my colleague John Blair, who has long championed the need for safe, modern and accessible mental health services across our shared trust area. It speaks volumes when you have representatives from three constituencies who are all invested in the issue. I want to talk about the pressure and uncertainty that my constituents face with the delay in delivering Birch Hill and from the proposed closure of the Ross Thomson unit at Causeway Hospital, which affects people right the way from Ballycastle and the glens over to Ballymoney. Mental health services in the Northern Trust area are already under strain. That pressure will only grow. The pressure on Causeway and, in particular, the Ross Thomson unit is growing. Staff work in an overstretched environment. Patients already wait far too long for specialist care. There is anxiety about what happens next, because, whilst there are plans for the Ross Thomson unit to close, there is no publicly confirmed date or any guarantee that I know of that it will remain open until the replacement capacity at Birch Hill is fully operational. That is causing an awful lot of anxiety among staff who work in the Ross Thomson unit, families and, as Ms Hunter mentioned, the community and voluntary organisations and other stakeholders. At the minute, they feel as though they are being asked to prepare for a future that they cannot see. That is not the transformation that Northern Ireland so badly needs. When we hear about the conditions in Holywell, as the alternative, and at the Ross Thomson unit, I think that the safety of patients and staff is at risk. If the Ross Thomson unit were to close prematurely and the date was before any proposed timeline for Birch Hill, the pressure would shift immediately to Holywell and to Antrim Area Hospital. Beds would become scarcer and admissions so much more complex. We know the practical outworkings of that. It means that patients in mental health crisis and acute distress wait longer in EDs and are placed on general wards where the environment is not appropriate to their needs. That affects everyone, whether they are in mental health crisis or waiting for physical healthcare, emergency care or elective procedures. Minister, to echo those who have spoken before me, I ask you this: are you prepared to commit to ensuring that Birch Hill is prioritised in your request for the capital investment plan? Will you provide a public timeline with milestones so that staff and families can plan with confidence? With regard to the northern half of the Northern Trust area, will you guarantee that there will be no closure or scaling back of the Ross Thomson unit until replacement capacity is fully funded and operational? Will communication improve with stakeholders from the Causeway area?

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:02 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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