Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 December 2025
1141. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Health when a National Mental Health Outcomes Framework will be published; the indicators being developed; and whether data will be reported quarterly. [72464/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe current Implementation Plan (2025-2027) for Sharing the Vision: A Mental Health Policy for Everyone (2020-2030) commits to the design and development of policy outcomes monitoring and tracking processes, including population level indicators.
As of Q4 2025, a phased rollout of the Sharing the Vision outcomes framework has commenced. Taking an implementation science approach, this will in the first instance mean an additional quality check to ensure that the output, as described by the recommendation text, is relevant and ‘implementable’ from the perspective of the intended target users. Later, focus will shift to adoption by mental health services, measuring impact on services, clinical outcomes, and ultimately improvements in the mental health of the Irish population. Fourteen policy recommendations have been identified as proxy indicators for progress on the seven principal policy outcomes set out in the 2025 – 2027 implementation plan. In collaboration with implementation leads for these recommendations, work is now underway to identify data sources and agree a data collection process for a demonstration of the outcomes framework.
It is intended that nationally agreed outcomes will be clearly defined and monitoring processes put in place to inform ongoing policy implementation and service improvements, by the end of the current Implementation Plan (end 2027).
Detailed policy implementation progress reports for Sharing the Vision are published biannually by the policy's National Implementation and Monitoring Committee (NIMC) on the Department of Health website.
Associated with the Child and Youth Mental Health Action Plan and overseen by the HSE National Office for Child and Youth Mental Health, work continues in developing a national child and youth mental health outcomes framework to support the measurement of impact across service, organisational, and programme levels. The framework includes defined implementation, organisational, and beneficiary outcomes and will be a core enabler of innovation and quality improvement across child and youth mental health services.
In addition to the Sharing the Vision outcomes monitoring and tracking process, the Department of Health Mental Health Strategy Unit is currently planning the development of a Population Mental Health Surveillance Tool, the aim of which will be to monitor mental health outcomes at a population level in Ireland over time.
With regard to your query in relation to indicators and reporting timeframes, these decisions will be made as work progresses on the Surveillance Tool.
