We need more mental healthinvestment

As children and young people return to being home-schooled due to the new lockdown, there is no doubt that this will have a continued detrimental impact on mental health and wellbeing.

As a coalition we applaud the Scottish Government’s greater investment in mental health services. However, a view we share with other organisations is that this investment is simply not sufficient.

Mental health services were already under immense strain prior to COVID-19, with children waiting considerable lengths of time for support. Recent statistics from December, for example, point to the fact that more than 1000 children have been waiting over a year for treatment.

This pandemic will only serve to make matters even worse as services deal with a backlog of those already suffering from mental health problems, added to which will be those who have developed problems over the course of lockdown.

What is needed is a national crusade, delivering significant investment in the public, private and third sectors to deliver adequate mental health support, both during and as we recover from COVID-19.

We must also use this as an opportunity to radically transform our mental health services, both for now and for the future, refocusing on prevention and early intervention.

In the meantime, we would urge those children and their families who feel they need help not to hold back and look to get the support they need.

The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition:

Kenny Graham, Falkland House School

Lynn Bell, LOVE Learning Stephen McGhee, Spark of Genius

Niall Kelly, Young Foundations