Mental Health Directorate

The Mental Health Directorate leads on mental health policy and on the delivery of the mental health aspects of the Programme for Government, the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan, the co-operation agreement with the Green Party, and other key commitments.

The directorate is responsible for managing policy around mental health, including:

our overall direction as we continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly how we meet emerging and evolving mental health need, capitalise on good practice and innovation, and remobilise services
mental health services: quality, improvement, performance and safety
forensic mental health services and restricted patients
learning disability, autism and wider neurodiversity
children and young people's mental health
population mental health, suicide prevention, response to emotional distress, and workforce development
social determinants of mental health
mental health law
mental health care standards