We have suffered years of disinterest and neglect. We’ve heard a lot of words but seen little action

I’m leaving the country because I’m so frustrated with this country’s mental health care. However, I would still like to see some serious action from the Scottish Government.

Ministers must follow their word and acknowledge a major problem. It’s one that must be dealt with through proper investment.

Giving £5 million to local authorities isn’t taking the problem seriously. At the very least, I’d like to see the government taking action instead of just making “cosmetic” changes.

We just don’t have the “person power” and have suffered from many years of neglect and disinterest in the services we provide. But we need to have real resources we can depend on because specialist mental health services need to be properly resourced. We are seeing people leave rather than join.

The government claims they’ve been increasing resources in CAMHS for years. They’re not. The latest funding didn’t go to CAMHS, it went to funding local authority provision. And actually, the kids with serious mental health problems, who need specialist services, are not being properly supported. The CAMHS workforce is not far from “flatlining” because in the last five years, there’s been virtually no change.

Covid has added stresses on to an already very stretched and underfunded system, and while there has been a lot of talk from the government, there’s not been a lot of action.

CAMHS has 0.75% of the NHS workforce. It’s less than 1%. Now, 10% of children and adolescents have serious mental health problems yet we can’t give more than 0.75% of our workforce over to it.

Our job is very time and labour-intensive. We don’t need lots of expensive drugs, we need a few fairly cheap ones. We do need a lot of personnel, though, as we need a lot of “person time”.

It takes “one-toone” work for hours at a time for one individual to help them through their difficulties. We just don’t have that.

People are always looking for a quick fix. So we end up having things like this two-tier waiting list because people are looking for quick answers. It’s just not effective or actually achieving a resolution. That’s what’s really frustrating.

I don’t understand why the government doesn’t even seem to acknowledge or appreciate how serious the problems are. They seem to think we can solve problems by having a few counsellors in schools. But if you’ve got a significant mental health problem, you do need skilled people with time to be able to address them.

You need to give them proper individual attention and time. People expect that and feel let down by the services because the services don’t give them what they are looking for.

I’m very concerned, but unfortunately, I have become sort of resigned to it now and getting very depressed.

There are so many difficulties, and so few avenues that are available to us, and we have so little to offer young people. It’s upsetting and stressful.