Mental Health Stigma

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 1 March 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:05, 1 March 2022

Well, Llywydd, I thank Sarah Murphy for that, and I congratulate all those of her constituents who are involved in that initiative in Bridgend. It reminds us of the importance of third sector and voluntary activity in the mental health field, backed up, of course, by investment from the Welsh Government. The mental health part of the health budget remains the highest area of spending in the Welsh NHS—£760 million this year—and extra investment in the draft budget, to be confirmed when my colleague confirms it later this afternoon in the final budget, the draft budget showing additional investment in mental health of £50 million next year, rising to £90 million in the third year of the budget. That does allow us to do what Sarah Murphy said, Llywydd, which is to invest in that broader range of mental health services.

If I could pick up, maybe, just the very first point that she mentioned, the mental health difficulties that are faced, sometimes, by women post giving birth. Since 2015, we've invested in specialist perinatal mental health services across Wales, so that there are now those specialist services in every health board in Wales, and £3 million goes into providing them. And in April of last year, just on the border with the Member's own constituency, we were able to open a mother and baby unit within the Swansea Bay University Health Board area, providing significant specialist perinatal mental health services for people who have the most significant difficulties of that sort.