A mental health service plan is being developed for adults, including setting out the service objectives and priorities for various actions, Secretary for Food & Health Dr York Chow says.

He told lawmakers today in formulating the service plan, the Government will take account of the views of experts and service providers, and consult patients, carers and other stakeholders.

It will continue to make reference to the Working Group on Mental Health Services' deliberations and consider developing service plans in future for other age groups to enhance the mental health services in response to the community's needs in a more systematic manner.

Dr Chow said the resources allocated to mental health services have been increasing in recent years. The total spending of the Hospital Authority and Social Welfare Department on the services grew to $3.77 billion in the last financial year from $3.14 billion in 2005-06.

"The number of suicide cases involving mental patients has notably fallen in the past few years," he said, adding the number of suicides involving patients who had used the authority's psychiatric inpatient or outpatient services within one year before they died in a suicide declined from 301 in 2004 to 210 in 2008.