Mental Health Stigma

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:08 pm on 1 March 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:08, 1 March 2022

I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. I agree with him about the importance of the work that the Samaritans do in all parts of Wales—the Samaritans in our capital city, based in my own constituency—and a remarkable service based almost entirely around volunteers that they provide to people, sometimes in the most desperate of circumstances. I agree with what the Member said about the importance of people feeling that there is support for them if they have to declare a mental health challenge, and that's why it is good to report that one in four people in the whole of the Welsh workforce are now employed by a Time to Change employer. So, that means that the employer has committed themselves to the actions that they can take to make sure that if people face a difficulty of that sort, then stigma does not prevent them from coming forward to seek the help that they need.

As far as young people are concerned, while for that small minority of young people who suffer from such a significant mental health challenge that they need a tier 4 or tier 3 service of the sort that CAMHS provide, for most young people who need help as they grow up through adolescence, it is those other services—those direct access service, provided by third sector organisations, provided by school counselling services, provided sometimes by online services that young people can simply access for themselves—that have the greatest possibility of intervening early in a problem that somebody might be experiencing, that don't have the stigma of formal mental health services associated with them, and that's where, as well as strengthening those very specialist services, the greater investment by the Welsh Government has been concentrated during the period of the coronavirus crisis.