Draft mental health and wellbeing strategy: Welsh NHS Confederation response

Key points

• Overall, members agree that the strategy takes positive steps towards a population approach to improving mental health and wellbeing outcomes and reducing inequalities in experiences and outcomes. 

   

• However, there are areas where impact could be strengthened in terms of clarity of actions to address underlying causes of poor mental health and wellbeing. 

• Also, the strategy should build more strongly on the foundations laid by the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act and existing structures in place to enable partnership working across sectors and the development of healthy environments.

• Furthermore, the strategy would benefit from an overview of the current state of population mental health and wellbeing and pressures on mental health services to set the scene for the strategy. This would complement the information provided on the strategic context and help to convey a sense of urgency that is required for improving population mental health and wellbeing.

• Finally, deprivation must be considered in more detail in the strategy, and across all Welsh Government strategies. Deprivation and inequalities have a broad adverse effect on societal wellbeing, as has been demonstrated across a range of measures, including health, life expectancy, crime, and mental health. The NHS alone does not have all the levers to reduce health inequalities, which is why we need to shift the focus from public health initiatives delivered through the NHS and local authorities to addressing factors such as poor housing, green spaces, transport, and food quality.