Jamie Green calls on government to improve waiting times for mental health services
West Scotland MSP Jamie Greene has called on the Government to improve waiting times for young people who require mental health services.
According to figures released by Public Health Scotland earlier this month, 46 per cent of those still waiting to be seen at the end of June had been doing so for 53 weeks or longer in Ayrshire and Arran.
This equates to hundreds of children waiting for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) appointments who have had to wait more than a year before being seen.
The Scottish Government’s target of having 90 per cent of youngsters referred to CAMHS, starting treatment within 18 weeks, show this target was only met for 59.3 per cent of patients across Scotland.
Questioning First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in the chamber during First Minister’s Questions, MSP Jamie Greene said: ‘The first minister spoke earlier about the effect of Covid-19 on young people and I think whilst they are less likely to suffer from the severe physical effects of the pandemic, they are still suffering the mental health secondary issues.
‘Members right across this chamber have been raising the issue of access to mental health waiting times since I joined this Parliament.
‘They were disgracefully long before the pandemic hit us and they haven’t got any better.
‘Can I ask will the first minister finally commit to ensuring that any young person who needs access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services will get it within the 18-week period that her Government committed to?
‘We cannot let these young people down a day longer.’
First Minister Sturgeon responded: ‘We are committed to that.
‘Jamie Greene is right that there were issues before the pandemic, but some of the challenges relating to the CAMH services have, of course, been exacerbated by the pandemic. As I have said many times, delivering on the commitment requires increased investment, which we have delivered, but it also requires reform of how we deliver mental health services.
‘Part of the challenge has been that there have not been enough preventative and early intervention services, so people have ended up being referred to specialist services. If they had had help earlier, that referral would not have been required. That extends waiting times for those services. In order to provide that early intervention and preventative focus, we are putting more counsellors into schools and have committed to the wellbeing service for young people. That work is really important.
‘One of the complications of the pandemic has been the difficulty in providing face-toface consultations — not just in CAMHS, but generally in the health service.’