Press Release: Wednesday 1 May 2024
Minister for Mental Health and Older People launches HSE Digital, My Mental Health Plan
- My Mental Health Plan is an online personalised interactive tool that supports mental health literacy through knowledge, awareness and understanding
- 2024 Health Budget increased mental health spending to almost €1.3 billion – the fourth consecutive year of increase – to improve all aspects of Mental Health care under our national Mental Health policies
Minister for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler TD, today officially launched the My Mental Health Plan. The online personalised interactive tool supports mental health literacy through knowledge, awareness and understanding, in the four primary mental health issues affecting the general population which are anxiety, stress, sleep, and low mood.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) developed the online interactive tool to help support and improve mental health and self-care. Available on yourmentalhealth.ie, the My Mental Health Plan provides users with four multiple choice questions, relating to quality of sleep, levels of stress, and feelings of low mood and anxiety.
Based on responses to the four questions in the tool, recommended actions are identified, and signposting is provided to face-to- face/phone support for those who need higher levels of support.
Addressing the HSE Sharing the Vision learning event today, Minister Butler officially launched the My Mental Health Plan and said:
“A primary focus for me as Minister for Mental Health and Older People is to ensure that people can access the support they need when they need it. I am pleased to hear from the HSE that since mid-January nearly 700 people have started a Mental Health Plan and 649 have completed a plan. I would like to commend the HSE for their huge efforts in completing this project and making this digital mental health tool available to the entire population on yourmentalhealth.ie.”
The 2024 Health Budget increased mental health spending to almost €1.3 billion, the fourth consecutive year of increase. This funding is being used to improve all aspects of mental health care under our national mental health policy, Sharing the Vision; our national suicide reduction strategy Connecting for Life; and the HSE Annual Service Plan.
Later this year, with a further commitment to digital mental health supports, Minister Butler will launch a new youth mental health app in conjunction with the HSE and their partners, Spunout. This app will help young people access quality, trusted information on mental health and offer signposting to the most relevant services to meet their needs in an approachable way.
Minister Butler concluded:
“In allocating funding, I am committed to supports that can make a real and tangible difference to the mental health and wellbeing of the people of Ireland. We have made great progress in recent years in the provision of digital mental health services, and we will continue to progress this through the development of a specific digital mental health strategy to support people to access services and supports.”
ENDS
Note to Editors:
- My Mental Health Plan went live in January 2024, with an official launch today. The My Mental Health Plan offers personalised recommendations in the form of a plan which can be forwarded to an individual’s email inbox for further reference and action. This is a great example of personalised care, providing simple remedies from a huge and sometimes overwhelming volume of information available online.
- Minister Butler was speaking at today’s HSE Sharing the Vision learning event. The event, which focused on collaboration and impact, provided an opportunity for key stakeholders to share the learnings on the value and importance of collaboration in achieving improvements throughout our mental health services. This was achieved through sharing experiences and meaningful dialogue.
