Meeting of the Parliament 17 May 2023
This week is mental health awareness week. Although much progress has been made, in recent years, in how mental health is treated and regarded, so much more still needs to be done. We all know someone who has been affected by mental health difficulties, and the events of recent years, such as lockdowns, have led to a rise in the number of people experiencing mental health problems.
The need to take action to protect the mental health of the people of Scotland is self-evident but, sadly, this Government has failed to do that. Today, some 30,000 children, young people and adults in Scotland are languishing on mental health waiting lists. That is nothing short of shocking, but, although it has been exacerbated by the pandemic, that crisis did not develop overnight. Despite the Scottish National Party Government introducing a national standard, in 2014, that 90 per cent of referrals for child and adolescent mental health services should start treatment within 18 weeks, that target has not been met once.
Around a third of young people who are referred to CAMHS services wait more than 18 weeks for treatment. Statistics that Scottish Labour has obtained show that the number of mental health calls to NHS 24 has risen sevenfold since 2019 and that—horrifyingly—7,576 Scots are thought to have died by suicide in the past decade. Those are not just statistics—they are lives cut brutally and tragically short, and it is incumbent on every single one of us in the chamber to work to ensure that more lives are not avoidably lost.
What must be done to protect the mental health of our nation? We must always remember that mental health issues, like physical health issues, do not drop from the sky. They are often the product of people’s circumstances and surroundings, which is why tackling poverty, unemployment and low-paid, insecure work must be part of a holistic approach to improving mental and physical health for all of Scotland.
Without targeted action to tackle the mental health crisis, more lives will be lost. Despite promise after promise from the SNP Government, staff shortages are continuing to undermine the heroic efforts of our national health service to tackle the mental health crisis. Despite an SNP promise to recruit 1,000 additional community mental health roles, the minister has admitted, in response to me, that not one has yet been recruited—and, by the way, the budget has been slashed. That is nothing short of a catastrophic dereliction of duty on the part of the Government.
Michael Matheson, who I see has now joined us, and Maree Todd may be new in their roles but they have been in Government for a long time and they inherit the mess that was left to them by Humza Yousaf. It is vital that they acknowledge the SNP’s failings, listen to NHS workers and act now.
To start, the SNP can end the short-changing of mental health funding in Scotland. In Labour-controlled Wales—I know that SNP members are keen to cite Labour-controlled Wales—mental health funding is 11 per cent of the health budget, and in England it is 10 per cent. In Scotland, it is just below 9 per cent.
With the scale of the mental health crisis that Scotland faces, that makes absolutely no sense and may even be putting lives at risk. That is why the SNP must urgently consider increasing mental health funding to at least 11 per cent of the NHS budget, to bring it into line with Wales—and, indeed, England—and to bolster front-line services. In my area, crisis services, for example, are extremely patchy, and after 8 o’clock at night people might not be able to access a local service.
We know that calls to mental health helplines are skyrocketing and that people in crisis are being left hanging on the telephone far too often. It is time for further investment in NHS 24 to ensure that no call goes unanswered.
With 30,000 Scots, including children, languishing on NHS waiting lists, we need a new referral system and investment in front-line services to support NHS staff. We also need a dedicated mental health worker in every general practice and specialist mental health services in every health board.
To do nothing to tackle the crisis would be nothing short of a dereliction of duty and an abandonment of the people of Scotland. It is time to draw a line under the inaction and get to grips with the crisis. SNP neglect has consequences, and SNP neglect of mental health services must end.
In the name of co-operation, and for the benefit of the people of Scotland, I move the motion in my name and call on everyone in the chamber who understands the scale of the mental health crisis to support our motion at decision time.
I move,
That the Parliament acknowledges Mental Health Awareness Week and, in so doing, is deeply concerned by the mental health crisis in Scotland, with almost 30,000 children, young people and adults on waiting lists; notes that mental health-related calls to NHS24 were almost seven times higher in 2022 than in 2019 and that, tragically, 7,576 people have died from probable suicide in the last decade; considers that staff shortages are undermining efforts to improve care, with the Scottish Government failing to begin the recruitment of the 1,000 additional roles to support community mental health resilience; agrees that funding must be directed into frontline services and community-based services; supports the creation of a new referral system, so that no young person is rejected for treatment, the provision of a dedicated mental health worker in every GP practice and a mental health A&E department in every health board so that patients can be fast-tracked, and calls for mental health spending to be increased to at least 11% of the NHS budget.
16:07