Robin Swann publishes 10-year mental health strategy and says ‘collective’ effort across Stormont required

A new ten-year strategy and funding plan around mental health in Northern Ireland has been launched by Robin Swann, but he warned significant investment will be required from across departmental budgets.

he Mental Health Strategy covers the years from 2021-2031, consisting of 35 actions the department will aim to carry out in order to reform mental health services here.

Speaking in the Assembly on Tuesday, the Health Minister Robin Swann said mental ill health is one of the “biggest challenges” facing Northern Ireland.

He added that it is estimated the Covid pandemic will result in up to 32% more referrals over the next three years.

The strategy is split into three themes. The first is promoting mental wellbeing, resilience and good mental health across society.

The second theme involves “promoting the right support at the right time” and provides service improvements across the whole lifespan.

The third theme, New Ways of Working, provides for system change to allow effective and efficient delivery of mental health services.

Mr Swann said investment will be needed, with a separate funding plan which estimates a requirement of £112m to £158m revenue funding per annum and a £285m capital one-off investment.

“The Strategy is built on a vision of a society which promotes emotional wellbeing and positive mental health for everyone, which supports recovery and seeks to reduce stigma and mental health inequalities,” he said.

“In the vision we set out the objective of a system that is consistent and provides equity of service.

“Addressing the current challenges through the actions in the Strategy is dependent on the availability of significantly increase and sustained funding.

“The Funding Plan has identified an investment need of £1.2bn over the next 10 years to fully implement the Strategy.

“This is a significant investment need and clearly something that I cannot fund from within existing Departmental budgets. It will require a collective effort to bring about the much-needed reform of mental health services.”

The implementation of the Strategy will be co-ordinated and led by the Department of Health and the implementation leads will vary between the Department, the HSC Board, PHA, HSC Trusts and the community and voluntary sector.

The full plan can be viewed on https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/mental-health-strategy-2021-2031