Crisis in Scotland’s mental health service ‘putting lives at risk’
SPECIAL REPORT
BY KARIN GOODWIN
SCOTLAND’S mental health crisis is putting lives at risk because people are not being offered support in time, campaigners claim. The warning comes amid calls by more than 10,000 Scots for a radical transformation of mental health services in a survey by campaign group 38 Degrees timed to coincide with a Scottish Government consultation on mental health. The 38 Degrees group said the stories of ordinary Scots in need of mental health services exposed the human impact of chronic shortages in funding.
The consultation, closing this Friday, aims to capture the views of people and organisations about the priorities for transforming mental health, and the Government has pledged to review the findings before publishing a new, 10-year mental health strategy later this year.
Testimony collected by 38 Degrees includes the story of Billie-Jean Nordkil, 21, from Dumfries and Galloway, who repeatedly asked for help for years but was only given a diagnosis and proper treatment after making an attempt on her life at 19.
She told the Sunday Herald her mental health was linked to childhood trauma. She said: “I had terrible low moods and depressive episodes. I went to my GP and was told that I had depression and anxiety – I didn’t want to go to counselling because as a child I’d had a very negative experience [of that].
“I went to the GP repeatedly as I was having urges to hurt myself. I told her I wasn’t feeling good. I was sent to the crisis team, they chatted to me and sent me home. I didn’t have any other input until the following year, after I took a serious overdose of asthma medication.”
WITH the help of a c ommunity psychiatr i c nurse, Nordkil chose to spend a week in a psychiatric hospital “to keep myself safe”. She was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and received support. Nordkil, who now volunteers with youth mental health charity Soul Soup, added: “People are dying and something needs to give. I was nearly one of them and now I’m so glad that I wasn’t.”
Tracey Korsah, from Kilmarnock, waited two months for referral due to depression before she received a letter detailing the pressure put on services and asking if she needed to be seen. She said: “This made me feel I was being a nuisance. I was in no state of mind to decide. People with depression find it impossible to do something proactive like pick up the phone and talk to someone to say: need to see me.’”
Simon Bradstreet, of Glasgow University’s mental health and wellbeing research group, claimed the “untold levels of frustration and distress” that had emerged highlighted the need for systemic change.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that Scotland is at a crisis point in its approach to mental health,” he added. “We know early intervention aids recovery but too often people don’t get near help until they have reached a real crisis point. Even then people often have to fight and beg to get that help, but it doesn’t have to be like this.”
Stewart Kirkpatrick, head of 38 Degrees in Scotland, said: “While the issue has been sidelined by traditional politics, we have shown people-powered campaigning can put mental health services on the agenda.”
The campaign is calling for better provision of mental health services through GPs, more funding for early intervention and crisis services, and better education on mental health.
Maureen Watt, Minister for Mental Health, said she was looking forward to meeting campaigners and stressed the issue was a priority for the Scottish Government, claiming spending has risen by 38 per cent, with an additional £150 million invested to support improved treatment.
The new strategy will “put the principle of ‘ask once, get help fast’ front and centre,” she said. ‘Yes – you