Nigel Dodds: 'I’ll take ‘Invest in Life’ campaign to Westminster'
A north Belfast MP has vowed to help Downtown & Cool FM secure more investment in mental health services for Northern Ireland.
Last updated 13th Oct 2017
DUP politician Nigel Dodds was speaking as part of our ‘Invest in Life’ campaign, which has featured a series of interviews with people affected by suicide and mental health issues here.
The crusade was launched in the hope of highlighting the epidemic of high suicide rates here and calling for more funding to help those in need.
Mr Dodds said the campaign has his full support:
“Problems with mental health I think in Northern Ireland are worse than other parts of the UK,” he said.
“Part of that is the legacy of the Troubles…particularly acute within my constituency which saw a one third of all the killings in Northern Ireland within one square mile of my constituency office.
“I am determined to make the issue of mental health provision for vulnerable people in Northern Ireland one of my highest priorities and I fully endorse Downtown Cool FM’s ‘Invest in Life’ campaign.
“I wish it every success and I’ll be doing everything in my power to ensure that both at Westminster and locally that this is highlighted, that we secure more resources for the fabulous health service professionals and those volunteers and charities that are doing tremendous work,” he added.
Mr Dodds said he is all too familiar with mental health issues in the community, as there are high suicide rates in his constituency.
Figures obtained by Downtown Cool FM show almost 10% of suicides in Northern Ireland in the past three years have been in north Belfast.
The DUP politician called for immediate action:
“It’s an issue that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
“I have met with a number of families, eh… mothers, fathers who have spoken to me about the terrible loss of a child.
“I met with one particular mother who lost two of her children to suicide and that affected me greatly because I am a father myself and I know how that would feel.
“You know when people quote the bare statistics they are pretty horrific but behind each of those statistics there’s a personal story of terrible grief and hardship and suffering,” said the north Belfast MP.
Mr Dodds’ party recently entered a confidence and supply agreement to prop up Theresa May’s Tory government.
As part of those negotiations, £1 billion in extra funding was secured for Northern Ireland, to be rolled out over the next two years. £50 million pound of that figure is to be directed into mental health services here.
Mr Dodds admitted that figure is not sufficient to tackle the extent of the problem:
“No it’s not enough, it’s a beginning,” he said.
“We just need to ensure that all of government is focused on this as a major priority and to see it as big an issue in the health provision as certain other areas that have got resources in the past.
“The prime Minister announced at the Conservative conference that she was going to do a review of mental health legislation which I think’s very, very welcome.
“As part of the deal that we have with the Conservative government we’re going to be pushing very strongly on mental health issues.
“We’ve already achieved 50 million pounds but we want more,” he added.