{"id":697982,"date":"2026-07-18T06:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T06:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/697982\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T06:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T06:40:10","slug":"justice-minister-rules-out-mental-health-courts-for-northern-ireland-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/697982\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice minister rules out mental health courts for Northern Ireland \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justice Minister Naomi Long<\/a> has ruled out the introduction of mental health<\/a> courts in Northern Ireland blaming funding pressures.<\/p>\n

Popular in countries including the United States, Canada and Australia, mental health courts (MHCs) redirect offenders with severe mental illnesses away from prison towards treatment. <\/p>\n

An example of \u2018problem solving justice,\u2019 it is typically aimed at those guilty of crimes that are not violent or sexual in nature.<\/p>\n

The benefits are said to include reduced reoffending rates and costs.<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/a>\"Noah<\/a><\/p>\n

It is an approach that has already witnessed success in Northern Ireland with the Substance Misuse Court<\/a> which was launched in 2018.<\/p>\n

Answering an Assembly Question <\/a>from Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Aoife Finnegan, Mrs Long said that previous scoping work into MHCs was paused during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis involved some early engagement with the Department of Health, including consideration of how such an approach might align with the Substance Misuse Court,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, no alternative model has been developed at this stage. <\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the significant funding and resourcing pressures facing both the Department of Justice and the Department of Health, there is unlikely to be progress on the establishment and roll-out of a Mental Health Court at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that work would continue to support those with mental health needs and reduce offending.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland\u2019s Mental Health Champion, Professor Siobhan O\u2019Neill, told The Irish News she was \u201cvery disappointed\u201d by the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cMental ill health places a huge strain on Northern Ireland\u2019s already overstretched justice system. Many people who come into contact with the criminal justice system have complex mental health needs that often go unmet. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, courts and justice services are under significant pressure, making it difficult to address the underlying factors that contribute to offending.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am therefore very disappointed that there is unlikely to be progress in developing mental health courts in Northern Ireland. Mental Health Courts are a cost-effective way of reducing crime and halting cycles of trauma.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"MentalMental Health Champion for NI, Professor Siobhan O’Neill <\/p>\n

In 2024, the PSNI said frontline officers were becoming overwhelmed by dealing with over 100 mental health incidents a day, equating to 100,000 policing hours and a cost of \u00a34m every year.<\/p>\n

At the time, Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson compared it to society effectively \u201ccriminalising mental health\u201d by having officers deal with vulnerable people in crisis.<\/p>\n

A Stormont Assembly research paper<\/a> also noted the pressure mental health incidents placed on an \u201calready exhausted legal system,\u201d and that a 2020 RQIA review found \u201ca significant lack of psychological support\u201d for inmates in Northern Ireland\u2019s growing prison population.<\/p>\n

While praising the potential benefits of \u201cwell-intentioned\u201d MHCs, the research paper highlighted limitations could include a lack of dedicated funding and available psychiatrists.<\/p>\n

In the United States, other problems included public safety concerns over \u201chigh-risk\u201d clients as well as offenders feeling coerced into completing court programmes with the threat of jail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justice Minister Naomi Long has ruled out the introduction of mental health courts in Northern Ireland blaming funding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[924,102,69223,11263,1906,6623,71640,2662,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-697982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-crime","tag-health","tag-health-and-social-care","tag-justice","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-naomi-long","tag-psni","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}