Local comedian Dave Elliott has undertaken a gruelling 3-day 300 mile cycle to highlight Northern Ireland’s escalating mental health crisis.
Dave is hoping that his efforts will help to help break the cycle of chronic underfunding in mental health services and also help break the cycle of mental ill-health and stigma which still surrounds it.
Dave Elliott’s mammoth challenge took him to many of the Action Mental Health services across Northern Ireland and he finished on the steps of Stormont on World Mental Health Day, adding his support to the call for the Mental Health Strategy to be fully funded.
“Northern Ireland has the ambition, the expertise, and the strategy. What it lacks is the funding. The cost of inaction will be more lives lost and people struggling to access the support they need. As someone who has seen the work of Action Mental Health and the challenges that people are facing, we simply cannot wait any longer.”
Action Mental Health has warned that mental health outcomes are being worsened by severe funding shortfalls and budget pressures that threaten the delivery of the Mental Health Strategy. They are also highlighting the severe financial pressures facing the community and voluntary sector who play such a key role in supporting mental health needs in local communities.
Northern Ireland continues to experience some of the highest rates of mental ill health in the UK, with one in five adults and one in eight children experiencing a probable mental illness. Evidence shows that the severity and complexity of local mental health issues are much worse than in other regions. Demand for services continues to rise, driven by financial hardship, social isolation, and pressures on families and young people.
Despite this, the funding promised under the 10 year Mental Health Strategy (2021 – 2031) has, in reality, fallen well short of what was planned. By this stage we should have seen an investment of around £77m in transforming mental health, with an additional £61.7m this year. However estimates suggest the actual amount invested is only around £12.3m. This represents only 16% of planned investment with further significant shortfalls forecast in this current financial year. Sadly, the funding that had been earmarked for the integration of the community and voluntary sector is showing the single largest deficit in current plans.
Added to this, many charities like Action Mental Health, are facing funding uncertainties due to the imminent end of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which currently supports the charity to deliver vital mental health recovery and employment services for people living with mental ill-health.
Calling for a sustained funding model for the Mental Health Strategy, Action Mental Health CEO David Babington said “We have a clear and costed plan to transform mental health services in Northern Ireland, but without urgent and sustainable investment, that plan is sadly facing the failure to deliver. Every time we delay investing in vital services it creates longer waits, greater distress, and more lives put at risk.”
The region’s services remain stretched beyond capacity. Psychiatric and psychological posts remain unfilled, crisis services are under-resourced, and access to talking therapies and CAMHS is inconsistent and subject to lengthy waits. Voluntary and community organisations, which deliver a large share of mental health support, are also facing cuts and funding insecurity, with several organisations facing a cliff edge in funding at the end of March 2026.
Just this week, the Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Northern Ireland, Dr Julie Anderson spoke about her fears of a lengthy delay to the creation of a vital, and already long overdue, Specialist Mother and Baby Unit for Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Audit Office has previously warned that the mental health strategy is at risk without sustained investment, while the Public Accounts Committee has urged the Department of Health to give greater priority to mental health in Northern Ireland and increase the funding of key services.
David Babington added: “Mental health must be treated as a core public health priority, not an optional extra. We need a ring-fenced, multi-year budget that matches the scale of the challenge, and a whole-government approach to tackling poverty, housing, and inequality, to help us break the cycle of poor mental health in Northern Ireland.”
As the world marks World Mental Health Day on 10 October, Action Mental Health is calling on the Northern Ireland Executive to fully fund the Mental Health Strategy in line with its costed plans; protect mental health budgets in 2025-26, from any planned cost saving exercises, and ensure the community and voluntary sector is properly funded and fully integrated into mental health service provision as envisaged in the mental health strategy.
There’s still time to support Dave’s Break the Cycle challenge!
