4. Will the Minister make a statement on the availability of mental health support in South Wales West? OQ56150

Thank you very much. We've positioned mental health services as essential services during the pandemic. This means that we expect services to be maintained, although we accept that delivery models may need to be adapted due to the restrictions. 

Thank you for that.

Following on from Helen Mary Jones's question, and the answer, actually, obviously we know as a result of the many pressures—[Inaudible.]—waiting times are incredibly long and services are stretched. Now, in some areas there is little or no support available. However, we also know that there are independent counsellors across Wales who are prepared to help the NHS in dealing with this issue now, but simply need to be paid to do it. I realise there are all these arguments about workforce planning and time lags and stuff, but these are qualified people now working in the independent sector. As well as that, many people can't afford to go private to access that support. Therefore, will the Government commit to proactively contacting all qualified counsellors in Wales and pay them NHS rates in order to increase the availability of counselling and mental health support services?

I think it would be very difficult for me to commit to contacting all the people in this space who are available, but I certainly recognise that there is a pool of experts that we could be making use of, and I think one of the things that I'm keen to do is to work with the health boards on this additional funding that we'll be putting in place for that tier 0 level support. There's no reason why those health boards then can't determine that they will effectively contract out some of that work from the health board, which is effectively what they're doing through third sector organisations. I'd rather, if I was honest, see that done through third sector organisations, but I recognise that at the moment there's a shortage of experts and we need to make use of those who are there. So, we can keep an eye on that, but I think when we're dealing with a system that has to cover the whole of Wales, you need big systems in place, rather than a system that tries to connect everybody individually.

Can I express my support for the Minister and my belief in the importance of mental health support, and can I go along with what Dai Lloyd said about using everybody who can help? I think that excluding any one group of people will only be to the detriment of mental health in Wales. My question is: from my experience, bereavement is a major cause of mental health deterioration—what additional bereavement support is being made available?

Thanks very much, Mike. There is significant additional bereavement support that has been made available, and there's a recognition, in particular after suicide, that people may need some additional bereavement support under those situations. We've got to recognise that there are tens of thousands of people in Wales now who have lost loved ones during this crisis, and we need to make sure that there is support for them. That bereavement support is in place. If we find that there is a need for more, then we'll look at that, but certainly, one of the things that I've been very keen to do in recent weeks is to make sure that people know where they can access the support easily, and I've been pushing in particular for health boards to make it easy for people to navigate to where they can find help, and I hope you, along with all the other Senedd Members, received a letter from me last week, indicating where people can go to for help, and we've ensured that every health board now has that information clearly set out on their web pages, which is something that was very much welcomed by the children's commissioner. She asked for that to be done in a much clearer way, so that it's easier for people to navigate.