AQW 26029/22-27

Mr Andrew McMurray
Alliance Party
South Down

Tabled Date: 10/04/2025
Answered On Date: 29/04/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail any steps being taken to build a shared, cross-departmental outcomes framework to track collective impact on suicide prevention, not just within his own Department.

Answer:

An updated Action Plan and Implementation Plan has been developed for Protect Life 2. These plans were discussed and agreed at the Executive Working Group on 3 April subject to funding. Once published the Department and the Public Health Agency will be developing enhanced monitoring arrangements for the Strategy to track progress and develop an outcomes framework with a wide range of indicators to assess progress. Discussions have already taken place with other Departments in this regard and to identify appropriate data.

The Department recognises that the impact of the Strategy is much wider than solely rates of suicide and self harm and is keen to reflect the vast number of outcomes which contribute to improving mental health and wellbeing, suicide prevention and self-harm across Departments