A GRASSROOTS campaign demanding a new rights-based approach to mental health, is gaining powerful backing from communities and political leaders alike.
During Mental Health Awareness Week, this year’s theme of Community came to life across West Belfast, as residents, activists, and organisations rallied for change that is being promoted by the group New Script for Mental Health.
On Monday, a packed-out workshop — held as part of Féile na gCloigíní Gorma and the NI Mental Health Arts Festival — saw an urgent and united call issued to the Department of Health and Executive, to start listening to people with lived experience of mental health struggles and frontline workers, and stop the unnecessary overprescribing of antidepressants and fund a wider range of healing supports rooted in dignity, choice, and community.
Community groups including Lenadoon Community Forum, Newhill Women’s Group, Meadows Ladies, Glór na Mona, Parents Together, and Springhill Community House joined forces to back the call.
Central to the campaign is New Script’s Give 5 initiative—a rights-based mental health framework launched on World Mental Health Day 2024 by former UN Special Rapporteur Professor Dainius Puras. This bold framework outlines the steps government must take to uphold the right to good mental health — recognising that wellbeing is shaped by everything from housing to trauma to community connection.
The Give 5 framework complements the Public Health Agency’s Take 5 Steps to Wellbeing, but goes further — moving beyond individual responsibility to systemic change.
From the workshop came clear, practical demands:
Lift the six-session cap on counselling;
Expand access to talking therapies and PTSD support;
Cut red tape for community-based providers;
Offer real support for children with special needs and their families.
Just one of the many New Script events in West Belfast his week
At a separate event hosted by Three Sisters Community Garden in Beechmount, incoming Belfast Deputy Mayor Cllr Paul Doherty (SDLP) added his voice to the growing movement.
“As someone working on the ground in communities across West Belfast every day, I see first-hand the devastating impact poor mental health is having on individuals and families,” he said. “So often, the root causes such as poverty, isolation and trauma go unaddressed, while people are left relying on medication as the only option.
“That’s why I fully support the Give 5 framework and its call for a new, rights-based approach to mental health and one that has dignity, healing, and community-based support at its core. We need to see action from government, including a clear plan to reduce the over-prescription of antidepressants and real investment in the kind of services that empower people to recover and thrive.”
With support from all major political parties, New Script is now preparing to bring a motion before the Assembly to curb the soaring, unnecessary use of antidepressants and expand holistic, community-based supports.
Kirsty Scott, activist and spokesperson for New Script, expressed her gratitude to the growing wave of supporters.
“We’re part of a global movement challenging the status quo in mental health. For too long, people with lived experience and those working on the frontlines have been ignored. That’s changing.
“We’re building a new conversation about mental health — one led by those who’ve been there, and by communities that care.”
