For World Mental Health Day 2022, help us to make mental health and wellbeing a priority for all.
For too long, the mental health of people in Northern Ireland has been underfunded and undervalued.
A recent report by London School of Economics and Political Science and the Mental Health Foundation calculated that the economic cost of poor mental health in Northern Ireland to be a staggering £3.4 billion annually. However, currently only around £150 million annually is allocated to mental health through the Department of health.
Given the impact of the COVID pandemic and the cost of living crisis, it’s never been more important to prioritise the mental health of our population. Urgent action needs to be taken to address the shortfall in the Mental Health investment in Northern Ireland, to ensure the vision outlined in the Mental Health Strategy becomes a reality.
Issues for core mental health services are being compounded by the loss of European funding. The current European Social Fund (ESF) programme ends in March 2023. The situation has now reached a “critical cliff edge” as there is no clear idea how the ESF money will be replaced. Organisations such as Action Mental Health rely on this funding to provide critical mental health services which offer referral pathways to support the statutory mental health sector.
It has become apparent that the proposed UK Shared Prosperity Fund will not sufficiently fill the funding gap that will be left for Action Mental health and 21 other disability providers, supporting some of the most vulnerable in our society.
We truly are at a critical juncture, and that’s why on World Mental Health Day, we’re calling for urgent action on these three priorities:
1. Replace ESF funding, now! Protect AMH services for local people. #TimeIsRunningOut
2. Fully fund Northern Ireland’s mental health strategy! #PlugTheGap
3. Form a new Executive and tackle the Cost of Living Crisis. #ProtectMentalHealth
Help us to make mental health and wellbeing a priority for all!
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It’s #WorldMentalHealthDay and right around the world people are acting to ‘make mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority.’
We’re calling for urgent action on these three priorities to help make Mental Health a priority in Northern Ireland.
#WMHD22 #MakeItAPriority #TimeIsRunningOut #PlugTheGap #ProtectMentalHealth
