Mental Health Services

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:09 pm on 2 October 2018.

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Photo of Bethan Sayed Bethan Sayed Plaid Cymru 2:09, 2 October 2018

Clearly, there's a link between drug abuse and mental health problems, and, from research I've looked at today, it would cost about £500 million to deal with drug-related crime for the individuals involved here in the UK. Now, there are many arrest referral schemes, but the take-up for them is quite low. They do things like methadone maintenance programmes to reduce both illegal heroin and related crime; they have medically supervised detoxification and counselling services, as has been mentioned previously. Now, I know we don't have power over the criminal justice system here in Wales, although on these benches we would like to see that come here, so what are you doing in relation to trying to target resources at those who are dependent on drugs in our society?

I went out with police in Port Talbot only a few weeks ago, and most of the people that we went out to assess or to look at were on drugs, were on heroin. This is something that is around us every day. How are you getting to grips with these particular schemes and working with the UK Government to ensure that they're working here in Wales?