Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:19 pm on 12 October 2021.
Thank you very much, Altaf Hussain, for those questions. You are absolutely right: lived experience is absolutely crucial, and if we are going to have effective policies, they have to be co-produced with people with lived experience. We already have the input of people who have mental health issues across the board, really, in the work that we're doing. We have a youth stakeholder group that informs the work in education. We also consult with Young Wales about mental health, and I am going to be attending their workshop on mental health in a few weeks' time.
But, we have also got people with lived experience who are involved in the partnership council, which takes forward a lot of this work across Government as well. But, I'm always open to looking at what more we can do to have lived experience, and one of the areas that I'm particularly interested in is the area of suicide prevention, where I think people with lived experience have got a huge role to play.
You mentioned mental health A&E. I think, really, that we don't want people to be getting to that situation where they are in an emergency. The last place that we want people who are in huge distress to be is A&E, really. So, what we are trying to do is prevent those problems from escalating.
We know from the work that was commissioned previously by the Welsh Government on urgent access to NHS services that many of the problems that people are presenting in crisis with are not mental illnesses. They are problems with debt, with housing, relationships—those everyday problems that we have but that have spiralled out of control. So, our approach is to try and stem those problems and support people earlier, but with a crisis provision there if people really need it.
As I said in response to James Evans, the detailed work on the gaps in the workforce across Wales—. This is a complex issue because, obviously, all health boards are different. They have different populations. That work is being done by HEIW and Social Care Wales, and when they have completed that work and drawn up the plan, then we'll have to look at resources. But, as far as I'm concerned, as Minister, the workforce is a key challenge to delivering the reforms that we want to see. So, I will certainly do everything that I can to assure you that we will find the resources that we need to.