There’s always more that we can do to objectively recognise what we do well and what we don’t do as well and need to improve on. But I think it’s rather unfair to suggest that the national health service is only interested in treating people’s physical conditions or the health commissioning separately. What we do need to do is see the whole person and treat the whole person and understand, in many instances, the risks they’re prepared to take legitimately for themselves—this isn’t about capacity, but saying they’re entitled to make a choice about what they want to do and the sort of treatments that they want to engage with.

For example, in dementia care, we know that, with lots of people who have dementia, there are challenges about understanding their physical health and making sure that they’re not avoided and, actually, that the person who has charge and responsibility for their care sees that whole person, understands their physical needs and their mental health needs as well. When you look at the work that is being done with stakeholders that will lead into the next delivery plan, which I’ll be proud to launch on 10 October on World Mental Health Day, you’ll see that there is a great recognition of people’s physical health and mental health and wellbeing being inextricably linked and tied up.

We see that in a range of things that we already do within Government. For example, Healthy Working Wales. I’ve been very interested to present the awards, not just because I like turning up and having my picture taken, but actually you hear different stories from different employers—small, medium and large employers—and there’s a real feeling that, in the work they’re doing with us, they’re actually recognising the mental health challenges and the well-being challenges for their workforce and understanding what they need to do to improve that. So, it is something that I’m seeing more and more and I expect to see it more consistently in the work we do and in the programmes that we fund. So, it isn’t just about looking in the one budget line to see where mental health is—it is much broader than that, and I expect that we will see that progressively through the national health service.