Health Minister outlines plans to champion mental health

Health Minister, Michelle O’Neill, opened the final conference of the Together for You project, and provided an outline of the challenges facing mental health services.

Together for You is an innovative partnership project, funded by the Big Lottery Fund, aimed at delivering mental health and wellbeing services to a range of people across the North.

The delivery of services under the project officially closed at the end of May 2016.

Congratulating the project on its success, Minister O’Neill said, “You have greatly exceeded your targets, and have provided services to over 52,000 direct beneficiaries, and to over 110,000 supporters, carers and family members.

“This is a great achievement, and highlights the importance of the voluntary and community sector in providing mental health services. It is also proof that partnership can work.”

The Minister told the conference that whilst mental health services have come a long way in the last decade, there is still much work to be done to improve mental health services generally.

She explained that her priorities will be to continue to promote partnership working, develop a sophisticated understanding of the gaps in provision, and work to secure the necessary resources to fill these gaps.

The Minister said, “There is no shortage of challenges. We face huge financial and practical issues. But we are all fortunate to have talented and dedicated people in the health service and the voluntary sector, and we have a good understanding of what needs to be done to fill the gaps in provision.

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“We have a growing evidence base, not least from projects such as Together for You, to help us make the case for reform, to correct the historic underinvestment in mental health services.

She added, “Mental health is an issue which can affect any one of us. Thankfully, it is an issue whose time has come, and I am committed to championing this cause.”

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Posted by Newry Times News on Jun 29 2016. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry