Ms Kate O'Flaherty:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to address it on our Healthy Ireland framework and its relevance to the committee's work. I should preface my remarks by saying I head the health and well-being unit in the Department of Health but interact with our colleagues in mental health policy. I was a member of the steering group that developed Connecting for Life, our suicide prevention strategy, and I was a member of the youth mental health taskforce.

With regard to the relevance of Healthy Ireland, we particularly note within the committee's terms of reference the aim to achieve a long-term vision for the direction of mental health policy in Ireland, and it is in this context that the vision, goals and implementation of Healthy Ireland provide a useful and supportive frame of reference for the future.

As committee members may be aware, Healthy Ireland is the national framework to improve the health and well-being of the population. It was approved by Government in 2013 and was developed in response to a number of significant public health challenges, including projected increases in the levels of chronic preventable physical and mental diseases and growing health inequalities. Healthy Ireland asserts that population health and well-being are critical for our social, economic and cultural progress, and our overall quality of life. These are not just health issues, but societal issues. The programme recognises the requirement for a whole of Government approach to addressing the social and environmental determinants of health, as well as the requirement for an inclusive, inter-sectoral approach to improve population health and well-being by shifting the emphasis more towards prevention, including primary prevention, and for empowering individuals and communities to take responsibility for their health and well-being. The vision is that we can achieve a healthy Ireland where everyone can enjoy physical and mental health and well-being to their full potential, where well-being is valued and supported at every level of society and is everyone's responsibility. This is a culture change in many respects for us as a society.

With regard to defining health and well-being, the Healthy Ireland framework uses World Health Organization definitions, which regard well-being as an integral part of overall health that reflects a person's quality of life, and the concept of positive mental health whereby a person can realise his or her own abilities, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and be able to make a contribution to his or her community.

In recent years, significant progress has been made in getting implementation of the Healthy Ireland framework under way. Much of our focus in the initial years has been on building a more enabling environment for more and better cross-sectoral and partnership collaboration. We have an ongoing focus on stakeholder engagement, and communications is an important element of this with regard to the culture change I mentioned. Since 2013, much of the focus has been on the development and publication of a suite of national policies, strategies and plans to address risk factors such as obesity, tobacco and physical inactivity. All of these have been published and approved by the Government, and the policy direction in a number of important areas is now clear and we are into implementation. Healthy Ireland is also influencing and informing policy direction in a number of other important areas, such as our new cancer strategy, maternity care, substance misuse and mental health.

We have a range of cross-departmental initiatives to help underpin strategic partnership action and support the local implementation of national policy. My colleagues from the Department of Education and Skills will speak a little bit about this specific area in terms of well-being, but I would like the committee to note we have a very strong and positive working relationship with the Department of Education and Skills on all of the topics in Healthy Ireland. Wider societal initiatives include the establishment of a national healthy cities and counties network, in affiliation with the World Health Organization, the development of the first national healthy workplaces framework, due for finalisation this year, and in recent weeks we commenced a healthy campus initiative with the higher education sector. These initiatives will form an important part of the future architecture and environment for the implementation of health and well-being policies, including those aimed at supporting and promoting mental health and well-being.

Colleagues from the HSE will come before the committee to discuss more specific work under Healthy Ireland to promote mental health and well-being. Committee members may be aware of the work under way in the HSE on emotional well-being, emotional skills and resilience in early years for parents and infants. We have commenced work on specific actions in Connecting for Life. These include the development of a national mental health and well-being promotion plan, which is being worked on by a working group comprising the Department, the HSE and elsewhere. There is also a related action on the promotion of physical activity, or exercise as Dr. Barry referred to it, as a significant protective factor for mental health through the national physical activity plan. The implementation of the national physical activity plan is jointly overseen by the Department of Health and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, with other stakeholders including the Department of Education and Skills. It aims to promote increased physical activity levels across the population, as well as promote enhanced understanding of the many and lifelong benefits of an active lifestyle, which include significant benefits for mental health and well-being.

In 2017, Healthy Ireland was identified by the Government as one of the priority areas for cross-Government communication and citizen engagement, and a new communications campaign has been running throughout 2018. The campaign aims to encourage and support behaviour change across the three key themes of healthy eating, physical activity and mental well-being, and a summer phase of the campaign #FeelGoodTogether is under way with a range of partner organisations.

I reiterate that the cross-Government, wide-ranging partnership working to implement Healthy Ireland will greatly contribute to the supportive and enabling environment and culture required to achieve the long-term aims of this committee's work. All of the Healthy Ireland programme stakeholders and partners look forward to contributing to future work arising from the committee's considerations and recommendations to help improve the mental health and well-being of people living in Ireland.