Anderson said the figures showed how it was “increasingly difficult” for mental health services to “provide consistent, high-quality care”.
“Mental illness often starts earlier in life than many physical health conditions, and without effective treatment it can become chronic and increase the risk of later physical illness,” she said.
“However, early intervention improves outcomes for individuals and can reduce future pressure on health services.”
Anderson said mental health services had “historically faced years of chronic underfunding and despite having a greater mental health need, we continue to receive less funding than other parts of the UK”.
“At the same time, we still don’t have comprehensive regional data on mental health waiting lists, meaning the true scale of unmet need remains very unclear,” she added.
“It’s clear things need to change – everyone should be working together to secure solutions to this continuing workforce crisis.”
Anderson described how despite people being “very very interested in becoming psychiatrists”, there has been no increase in the number of training places “in almost 20 years”.
She said that demand was increasing and training posts that were available were “oversubscribed”.
Anderson said work to resolve the issue needed to start now and a better job needed to be done at looking after the workforce.
She called for a cross departmental approach across the political parties and across the departments in Stormont saying that “this isn’t just about mental health, it’s not just about Mike Nesbitt making changes”.