MLA calls for funding boost as 60,000 people in Northern Ireland revealed to be on mental health service books - and one in ten are children
Almost 60,000 people are currently using mental health services in Northern Ireland – and more than one in 10 of them are children.
In total, 7,010 under-18s are currently on the books of NHS mental health services across the province.
That’s 11.7% of the total number of people currently getting treatment for mental health issues.
Yet Northern Ireland has consistently underfunded mental health care compared to the rest of the UK, pushing DUP MLA Diane Dodds to call for an investment boost.
She points out that the province allocates 7% of its health budget to deal with mental health issues, while Scotland gives 9.4%, England 11.4% and Wales 13.3%.
"This is not something the Executive can be blamed for, but clearly a matter of prioritisation within the Department of Health,” she says.
"The Public Accounts Committee made a number of recommendations to the Department of Health last year on mental health, only a few of which have been acted upon.
“The number of referrals to adult mental health services has increased significantly over the last couple of years.”
She adds that youth mental care in particular needs more investment, stating that issues such as anxiety and depression are 25% more common in Northern Ireland’s young people than their peers across the water.
"Research has shown that half of adult mental health disorders develop before the age of 18, highlighting the need to prioritise the acquisition of resilience and coping skills from an early age,” she said.
“The rise in work-limiting conditions across the UK in recent years has been driven by sharp increases in reported mental health, particularly among younger workers.
"The number of workers aged 16 to 34 who report their mental health limits the type or amount of work they do has increased more than four-fold over the last decade.
“Mental health is now the most common cause of work-limiting conditions among those age 44 and younger in the UK.”
The statistics were uncovered by Mrs Dodds, her party’s health spokesperson, in questions in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
They showed County Down is the worst affected region by a substantial margin, though the NHS trust covering that area said that may be because other trusts count patient statistics in a different way.