Meeting of the Parliament 21 January 2014
I compliment the Parliament on discussing mental health and suicide prevention. In my long time in the Parliament, we seem to have raised those issues many times, which we have gone some way towards destigmatising. We have provided funding to the voluntary sector, which I will discuss later. It is refreshing to be in a debate that has been mostly—apart from a wee hit or two from Jim Hume—devoid of party politics and point scoring, which is as it should be.
I welcome the Government’s suicide prevention strategy, which continues the earlier work on harm reduction, early intervention and destigmatising. I recognise the work that my colleague Kenneth Gibson has done, which he is humble about. In 1999, when I had no idea what he was talking about, he raised the issue of high suicide rates among young men. He has pursued the issue for years, and it is only those of us who have been in Parliament for 14 years who recall that. Kenny Gibson has kept to the subject, as others have done, for a very long time, and I compliment him on that, because we are catching up with him.
I want to focus on the third sector, which is important and informed because of its grassroots contribution, as is illustrated in my constituency, where face-to-face help is provided. That is important, because there can be clever websites and clever things to do, but sometimes people just need someone right in front of them, with a cup of tea, to talk to and to listen to them. No website can provide that.
I also want to talk about the role of education in the campaign—raised by many members, but begun by Nanette Milne—for the responsible use of social media, which definitely has an increasing part to play.
Penumbra in my constituency promotes mental health and wellbeing, aiming to prevent mental ill health for people who are at risk. It provides support and practical, accessible help, based in the community and right in the middle of Galashiels in big offices, which destigmatises the issue right away. The premises are cheery, with well-painted, fresh rooms and coffee and tea. That says something about mental health issues, which—if we are honest—we all know affect many people, including many friends and relations, at some time in their lives.
Health in Mind provides befriending services, offering six-monthly matches, operating initially in Midlothian and the Borders. Clients get six months with a befriender matched to them, to get them out and about, busy, out of the house and out of their cocoon. It helps them to get confident again with the outside world and to build their self-confidence and self-esteem, which can be so easily vanquished.
For anyone, redundancy can take away self-esteem with the click of their fingers, as can a broken relationship, when all the cockiness and self-esteem that they once had disappear. It can happen to anyone. The befriending services help to rebuild people’s confidence so that they can cope with what many of us cope with every day without any problem—although we could all be there.
New Horizons, founded in 1993, is an informal meeting place and self-help group where people help one another to get through their problems. It even leads to romance. It led to a marriage—I met the couple who had met there and then married.
As a side issue, the bedroom tax affects people with mental health problems. One of the members at New Horizons told me that she cannot share a home because of her mental health condition but that she was being asked to have someone else in the spare room or be taxed on it.
Together, those charities play a collective role not only with one another but by contributing to the planning of mental health services across the Scottish Borders. In Midlothian, we have midspace, the online mental health and wellbeing information service for people who want to know where to go for services. It points them in different directions for treatment and care. Other members have mentioned SAMH, which in my area is focusing on employability, which is important.
While I am on the subject, let me point out that it is extremely difficult for somebody with mental health issues to disclose them to an employer. They do not want to put it in a form or mention it; they can say that they have had chicken pox, but they will not say that they have had a breakdown at some point in the past, because they fear that they will be written off and not be able to pursue their career any more. There are still issues with employers.
Not all who may commit suicide are mentally in a position to access services, as I have said; neither are they identified by the system earlier on. Out of the blue, somebody can commit suicide triggered by redundancy, the end of a relationship, failing an exam or not getting the marks that they thought they would get. There can be no warning.
I move on to the role of education. We have dealt with that, to some extent, in relation to social media, where there can be venomous bullying and distressing attacks on Facebook or in blogs and tweets. As has been said before, there have been highly publicised examples of individuals who committed suicide substantially as a consequence of online comments. We know that it is the bad things that are said about us that we keep reading.
The nasty things are the ones that we cannot get out of our heads in the middle of the dark night when we remember a horrible comment that we have read. Do not look at those comments on the internet about me, by the way. They are there; they are there about us all. The nasty ones are the ones that we keep picking at, so if someone is vulnerable, they are the ones that they will remember. They bite into our souls.
Lewis Thelwall, aged 19, of Port Talbot was bullied to his death because false rumours were put on the internet about him. He was vulnerable so he took the comments to heart and killed himself.
In Fife, 17-year-old Daniel Perry became involved, in his innocence, in a scam. He was threatened with blackmail. People—anonymous users—on the social media website ask.fm actually urged him to kill himself. The same website had been linked to other youngsters’ deaths. He was sent messages saying:
“you need to let a blade meet your throat”.
Who are these people that put such things online? Daniel was warned that he would be better off dead if he did not transfer the cash. Of course, he took the warnings to heart and he hid everything from his family. The thing is that his mother said:
“He was not the type of person who let things get him down”.
Presiding Officer, I was told that I had a generous six minutes. Do I still have time left?