The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Action call after suicide rise
A“serious expansion” of the number of dedicated mental health staff in the NHS is needed after a rise in probable suicides, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have said.
The party made the plea after new figures showed there were 833 probable suicides registered in Scotland in 2019 – a 6.25% increase on the 784 recorded the previous year.
In Tayside and Fife, the number – 114 – stayed exactly the same as 2018.
The Public Health Scotland statistics – which pre date the Covid -19 pandemic – have prompted calls for a “radical transformation in our mental health services”, with campaigners concerned this year ’s lockdown and coronavirus restrictions have made it harder for people in need to access support.
It comes after the specialist health board revealed 620 men and 213 women died by suicide last year.
An independent review into mental health care has already been carried out in Tayside and found a culture of “mistrust” where patients were not put first.
This year’s Public Health Scotland report also noted there is a “known link between deprivation and suicide”, with the probable suicide rate between 2015 and 2 01 9 three times higher in the most deprived areas compared with the least deprived.
Dundee continues to have one of the highest rates of suicide in the country with 33 last year, while Fife saw 45, Perth and Kinross 25, and Angus 11.
Dundonian Gillian Murray, who helped push for the Tayside inquiry after her uncle David Ramsay took his own life, said the increase is “grim news”.
She said: “It’s not entirely surprising given the state of affairs already.
“The Covid-19 crisis will just compound what was already a broken system.
“I feel like everything I’ve done over the past few years has been a waste of time and energy but I am hopeful there will be change.”
Mandy McLaren, whose son Dale Thomson took his own life following treatment at Dundee’s Carseview Centre in 2015, said: “The main thing for me is the whole system needs a cultural change.”
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Alex ColeHamilton said the figures are “devastating”.
He added: “More than two people a day, young and old, are dying by suicide.
“The last few months have been especially tough but there was a mental health emergency before the pandemic struck.
“Scotland already had a record number of children waiting over a year for the mental health treatment they need.”
He said there needs to be a “service transformation” in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services ( CAMHS), complaining that currently youngsters are “left waiting for expert help”.
Mental Health Minister Clare Haughey said: “While these statistics do not reflect the period of the coronavirus pandemic, we know that this is taking a significant toll on many people’s mental health and we are doing all we can to support people at this difficult time.”