1st May 2025
The iHV is delighted to celebrate the launch of the Wales Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Delivery Plan. Published yesterday, the 10-year plan outlines ambitions to ensure people in Wales live in communities that:
- promote and support mental health and wellbeing
- give them the power to improve their mental health and wellbeing
- are free from stigma and discrimination.
The strategy has been informed and shaped through extensive engagement with the public, people with lived experience and stakeholders, including the iHV, and sets out the key priorities needed to achieve these ambitions.
Specialist Health Visitors for Perinatal Mental Health in Wales have collectively reflected on the strategy, saying:
“We really welcome the focus on the importance of Infant Mental Health and the First 1000 days, particularly on improving support for parent-infant relationships.
“It’s so good to read the individual stories highlighting the important role that health visiting plays in identifying and supporting Perinatal Mental Health and Parent-Infant relationship difficulties.
“We look forward to seeing how the implementation of this strategy develops in Wales, so that all babies not only have the best start, but flourish across their life.”
Hilda Beauchamp, iHV PIMH Lead, says:
“Our submission to the strategy consultation last year urged recognition that good mental health requires a life course approach which includes a focus on the earliest years of life, from conception onwards. We are encouraged to see the all-age approach encompassed in the vision statements and the clear recognition given to the vital role of health visitors. We know that a well-resourced and appropriately trained health visiting workforce can provide clinical and cost-effective care to families. This can prevent mental health issues developing or escalating and ensure that families who need additional support receive it as soon as possible. The character story of Dan and baby Elijah beautifully illustrates the impact of a trusted health visitor relationship in improving paternal mental health and the father-baby relationship.”
Delivery plans to accompany the strategy and ensure best use of resources to achieve the vision will be developed, alongside the development of a ‘theory of change’ to set out the mechanism by which the strategy intends to achieve its outcomes. The success of the strategy in achieving long-term systemic change relies on continued collaboration, partnership working and shared ownership of mental health and wellbeing.
