On Monday the NI Assembly will debate my proposal that we should create an International Mental Health facility to tackle the toxic Troubles legacy of trauma, post traumatic stress disorder and other mental health and wellbeing issues that plague our population. The issue is not exclusively linked to our troubled past, but there is credible evidence that it crosses generations and some young people's self-harm is linked to a past they did not live through.
No doubt, many statistics will be raised during the debate. I shall not be shy on that front. One statistic that sticks in my mind is that, on average, people do not seek help until 22 years after the onset of symptoms. It reminds me of a man I know who was approached relatively recently by a lifelong acquaintance, someone he had been at primary school with, who wanted to tell him about the night 35 years previously when he (the acquaintance) had been given a gun and sent out to kill him. The gunman was having sleepless nights and sought the comfort of a confession; whether he got that satisfaction or not, he left his old friend traumatised at the thought of how often in the intervening period he had met and befriended his prospective killer. For me, it illustrates the depth and complexity of mental health issues and the critical need to provide a facility for all.
One in four of us will have to cope with poor mental health at some stage of our lives, so it is likely that at any given time, as Health Minister Edwin Poots MLA has said, that poor mental health affects most of us, be it through ourselves, family, friends or work. Yet, in broad terms, our spending per head of population is about half of what is allocated to the issue in Great Britain, despite us having roughly double the problem.
Over the last 45 years, we have created the massive problem of poor mental health in our people. Let us commit to fixing it. An International Mental Health Centre, offering world class facilities in treatment, training and research would be a fitting contribution to dealing with the legacy of our past, and a beacon to the rest of the world who have been so generous to us.
Since making the proposal two weeks ago, I am humbled by the response from so many individuals and groups, not least the self-help group who came to see, to share their experience of young family members who suffer horrific mental health problems. One mother said she was an ex-republican inmate, to which I say: Creating this facility is the right thing to do, for everyone.