To ask the Minister of Health to detail what specific measures are being put in place to ensure that rural constituencies, including East Londonderry, are not disproportionately affected by delays in implementing the Mental Health Strategy 2021-2031, as highlighted in The Northern Ireland Mental Health Strategy: A Review of the deliverability of the Strategy’s Actions 2026-2029.

The Mental Health Strategy 2021-2031 is underpinned by a commitment to ensuring equitable access and consistent delivery across all areas in Northern Ireland.

While funding constraints have necessitated the completion of the Northern Ireland Mental Health Strategy: Review of the deliverability of the Strategy’s Actions 2026-2029, the process has sharpened our focus and ambition. The review recommends a phased approach to delivery, ensuring that efforts remain targeted and achievable within available resources.

The Review of Deliverability highlights the principle of Eradicating Inequity within Mental Health Services as a central focus. It reinforces that any actions prioritised for additional funding must be progressed in line with the Strategy’s original commitment to equality of access and consistent provision, ensuring that improvements benefit all communities fairly.

The approach to implementation therefore remains centred on regional consistency and equitable access across Northern Ireland, with a clear commitment to ensuring that no area - including rural constituencies such as East Londonderry - is disproportionately impacted or disadvantaged.

This is a central tenet of the work underpinning the ongoing development of a regionally consistent mental health service (Action 31), alongside the implementation of a Regional Mental Health Outcomes Framework (Action 34). Both were identified and progressed as priority enabling actions at the time of the Strategy’s publication.

The former seeks to establish systems that ensure equitable access to high-quality, consistent mental health services across all areas of Northern Ireland, through collaborative efforts that shape services to meet local needs while maintaining regional standards. The latter supports evidence-based decision-making and enables monitoring of service effectiveness and consistency across the region.