MSP cites improvements in waiting times statistics

Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford met with some of the concerned parents and raised a question with Mental Health Minister Maureen Watt in Holyrood following the campaigners’ visit to the Scottish Parliament.

However, in a surprise to the campaign group, he went on to praise the local service after Ms Watt described “substantial improvements” in the past 12 months, with figures showing 95 per cent of people in CAMHS were being seen within the 18week target time period.

The minister outlined a new 10-year strategy for mental health in Scotland which contains 40 actions, including those that commit to funding improved provision of services to treat child and adolescent mental health problems and funding work to improve provision of psychological therapy services and to help meet set treatment targets.

She also highlighted a £54million package of support to improve access to child and adolescent mental health services and to psychological therapies across Scotland.

Mr Crawford said later: “Both myself and the minster from Mental Health have recently had meetings with service users in Stirling to discuss the problem they have been having with CAMHS.

“I welcomed the opportunity to hear their experiences and to discuss the work the Scottish Government is supporting through investment and the new mental health strategy to improve the standard of care from CAMHS, including the quality and continuity of service.

“NHS Forth Valley is one of the first boards in Scotland to work with the improvement team. Working with the board, a new service model has been introduced in Forth Valley and we have seen substantial improvements in CAMHS waits.

“The latest published figures show that Forth Valley’s performance against the standard improved across the second half of 2016, with 95 per cent of people treated in CAMHS being seen within 18 weeks. NHS Forth Valley board and staff should be congratulated on attaining the target.”