The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Mental health £300m boost
Government: Pledge to improve care and remove inequalities
More than £300 million of Scottish Government cash will be invested in improving mental health care over the next five years.
The funding will help implement the 40 measures outlined in the Government’s 10- year mental health strategy.
It has been branded a
“Claimed it lacks the ambition and investment that Scotland deserves”
“missed opportunity” by opposition MSPs at Holyrood while mental health campaigners at SAMH claimed it “lacks the ambition and investment that Scotland deserves”.
Maureen Watt, Scotland’s first dedicated mental health minister, said the new blueprint was “not the end of a process”, stressing it is “just the beginning”.
She told MSPs mental health services had changed “dramatically” over the last decade but there was an “ambition to go further”.
Included in the strategy is work to improve the physical health of people with mental health problems, as those with long-term problems can die 15 to 20 years prematurely.
Ms Watt said: “This is a major health inequality. I cannot accept it.”
To tackle this, she said she was “committed to ensuring that services such as screening and smoking cessation are supported to help improve participation rates for those with mental health problems”.
New powers over employment programmes being devolved to Scotland will see the Scottish Government support people to find and stay in work as not having a job can be “the biggest inequality that people with mental health problems can face”.
A new 10-year strategy for child and adolescent health and wellbeing will be developed, covering both physical and mental health.
Ms Watt also pledged the Government would ensure every child “has access to emotional and mental wellbeing support in school ”.
She stated: “None of the improvements to mental health services will be realised without having the right staff in the right place.
“We will work to give access to dedicated mental health professionals to all A&Es, all GP practices, every police station custody suite and to our prisons.
“Over the next five years, that will mean increasing additional investment to £35 million for 800 additional mental health workers in those key settings.”
Billy Watson, chief executive of SAMH, welcomed the new strategy, describing its publication as “long overdue”.
While he said the charity was pleased some of its recommendations had been accepted, he added: “We are disappointed it lacks the ambition and investment that Scotland deserves, especially for children and young people.”