Mental health: £1.2bn 10-year plan unveiled for Northern Ireland
A total of £1.2bn over the next 10 years will be needed to transform Northern Ireland's mental health services, according to Robin Swann.
The Health Minister said this would help deliver a new Mental Health Strategy which he unveiled today.
The plan includes 35 actions across three themes:
- promoting mental well-being resilience and good mental health across society
- providing the right support at the right time through focused delivery of services
- creating new ways of working including the setting up of a single mental health service
Launching the new strategy in an Oral statement to the Assembly, Minister Swann said: “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.
"In the vision we set out the objective of a system that is consistent and provides equity of service. We also want to break down barriers so that individuals and their needs are right at the centre – a truly person centred care.”
The Strategy is published alongside a Mental Health Funding Plan designed to identify the costs associated with developing, establishing and maintaining the services set out in the Strategy actions.
The Funding Plan identifies an estimated investment need of in the region of £112m to £158m revenue funding year on year and circa £285m capital one-off investment.
Minister Swann commented: “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.