Jim Shannon

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Wishart. A big thank you to the hon. Member for Blaydon and Consett (Liz Twist) for setting the scene so incredibly well. This profound and heartbreaking crisis touches almost every community, school and street across the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. When we talk about the mental health of our young people, we are talking about our future. The world our young people have inherited is one of intense and inescapable pressure: social media follows them everywhere, there is no place to hide from cyber-bullying, and the continuous distortion of self-worth is pulling our youth into dark, isolated corners. In Northern Ireland, one in 10 have engaged in self-harm, and we have lost 290 to suicide in a single year. Every one of them represents an empty chair at a family table, a shattered home and a life of potential cut tragically short. Regional figures from Ards and North Down council indicate that the number of suicides in Ards and North Down increased by a shocking 40% over the last four years. Our local youth services and schools are overwhelmed. Grassroots groups are doing an angelic job, but they are fighting an uphill battle against rising demand and unstable funding. Our young people in Comber and Newtownards, and right down the Ards peninsula, which I represent and where I live, deserve better than a system in which they have to wait months on end just to speak to a mental health professional. That is not satisfactory. Early intervention is not a luxury; it is a life-saving necessity.