Strang ‘encouraged’ by strategy development

The team behind the report into mental health services in Tayside is set to review its progress so far in coming months.

David Strang and his team will talk to health board chiefs, staff groups, local authorities and others to gauge what has been done and what remains outstanding.

He hopes to have the review published by around June.

The Trust And Respect report contained 51 recommendations to bring the service up to scratch.

These included a “culture change” among staff and management and a more open, transparent approach to problematic events.

He has maintained some contact with the health board chiefs and is encouraged by the preparation of a strategy on how to tackle the issues.

However, he is keen to find out what work has been done “on the ground”.

He said: “I am not able to comment in detail yet about the progress that has been made because I won’t know until we are back and had a look, but I have been encouraged in terms of planning and developing a strategy by management.

“I don’t expect everything to have been fixed in this time, like a culture change. That will take some time to achieve, but I want to know what work has been done on the ground with that.

“We will be looking for evidence of what has changed.

“One of the main recommendations was developing a mental health strategy because they didn’t have that before.”

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman admitted last year that the global pandemic was likely to slow the pace of the much-needed transformation.

David Strang added: “I don’t know to what extent how much has been moved or delayed by Covid but that is something I will address in my review.

“We have had some dialogue with management, I always said they could contact me during this process. They’ve done well to produce the report and put work in place to bring a 24/7 service in Angus.”

The review comes at the behest of the Scottish Government, who asked David Strang’s team to conduct one around a year after the publication of Trust And Respect.