Self-harm Prevention

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:01 pm on 17 October 2018.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:01, 17 October 2018

Thank you for the question. As I've said earlier, we are taking seriously and taking forward our commitments made in response to the 'Mind over matter' report, with the first meeting of the jointly chaired ministerial task and finish group taking place earlier today. That was a constructive and positive meeting, so I'm looking forward to reporting on further progress in due course about what we are doing there.

However, our current 'Together for Mental Health' delivery plan set out our expectation that health boards will monitor the provision of support following hospital discharge; that is also set out in the 'Talk to me 2' delivery plan. I think what I should do is again to return to the Member to ask for proper reassurance from other health boards—they are actually taking that seriously and doing so. But more than that, in terms of how we assess and understand how it's being done, we are already looking to improve the data that we collect through the development of what's being called a mental health core data set—to understand that we're collecting the same information, in the same way, in the same place, to allow us to understand the improvement that's being made and the relative progress in different parts of the country. That goes alongside the implementation of the Welsh clinical care information system across Wales, to help improve monitoring of progress and action. That—I think helpfully for Members—is not just a matter for the national health service and clinicians, but it does involve the third sector too in engaging on what we should collect and how we should then present it and actually provide it to the public.