Mr. Bernard Gloster:

I need to be fair.

I addressed that here previously. I want to make two distinctions when we talk about mental health and well-being. Mental health and well-being need increasing attention, certainly, for every young person we encounter and perhaps for many more we do not encounter. All of us as a society have become attuned to the pressures on young people. I agree with all the strategies for trying to support people wherever they gather, whether that is through schools or youth clubs. The maximum training we can give to people who interact with young people around mental well-being and those types of issues is something we should continue to pursue.

With regard to mental health, when it moves somewhat more into the sharper phase and, potentially, with mental illness, there is no doubt that there are challenges for young people who experience difficulty having, as it where, a diagnosis which allows them access to services under the Act, be it with CAMHS or with the transition to adulthood.

As stated earlier, when young people are leaving care and when they leave care, there are probably two significant challenges they face. Deputy Murnane O'Connor mentioned the interagency requirement causing us all to be on our game much more than perhaps we are at times. Those challenges are with regard to mental health support and sustainable accommodation, which very often go hand in glove with the young people I meet. I meet young people who have left the care system who tell me categorically that the worry and difficulty and the additional pressure on them partly comes from that pressure around sustainable accommodation. As the Deputy knows having long been an advocate for it, sustainable accommodation does not just mean a dry, warm place to put one's head at night. It is a whole community and set of supports. Therefore, I cannot but agree with the Deputy that it is a challenge for us. It is one we must keep pursuing, and we do keep pursuing it and trying to find strategies to help young people. To be fair to colleagues in the mental health services, they do try to help as well. I do not think people turn their backs. However, there are limitations to the mental health legislation that certainly do not help with some of the situations to which we try to respond.