Hansard

I welcome the minister to his new portfolio. There is considerable scope to do much more to improve mental health services. Mental health is one of those issues that tend to gain cross-party support with very little party-political intervention, because it is so important. We will support the Government’s motion and the amendments in the names of Richard Simpson and Jim Hume.

I am pleased to be starting 2015 with a debate on mental health. In the short time that is available to me, I hope that I can cover some concerns about the mental health strategy. It started in 2012, and all the commitments are to be achieved by the end of this year. Conservatives want progress in improving mental health and wellbeing, so the debate is an opportunity to review the Government’s report card.

As Richard Simpson said, apart from debates on dementia, the SNP has held two debates specifically on mental health since 2007. One was held in September 2011 and the other was in January 2013—the Scottish Parliament information centre has confirmed that. I would have thought that mental health justified an annual update and debate, although I appreciate that the Health and Sport Committee is looking at the Mental Health (Scotland) Bill.

Those of us who were on the Health and Community Care Committee in 2003 had high hopes that the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 would make a huge difference to service users. Today is our opportunity to look at that.

I read in its briefing that Penumbra, along with the University of Abertay Dundee, has developed a personal outcomes approach with an internationally recognised tool called the individual recovery outcomes counter. The tool allows self-assessment of mental health and wellbeing to track improvements. For so long we have said that we have given £10,000, £10 million or £20 million then sat back and thought, “That’s fine—we’ve thrown the money in there,” but we have never measured the outcomes. I put on record how much I welcome the development of a tool to do just that.

Given that this is the minister’s first mental health debate, I draw his attention to progress on some of the commitments in the Government’s strategy, although I appreciate that the strategy lasts until the end of the year. I will pick out a few of those commitments.

Commitment 1 is that

“a 10 year on follow up to the Sandra Grant Report ... will be published in 2014.”

However, we have heard nothing. Commitment 6 is to

“a Scotland-wide approach to improving mental health through new technology ... with NHS 24.”

To date, we have heard nothing.

Commitment 12, which all three Opposition parties mentioned in their amendments, is to reduce the number of children being treated in adult psychiatric wards. We spoke about that issue in 2003 but, according to the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland’s most recent annual report, the number of children treated in adult wards rose to 202 in 2013 from 177 in the previous year. Again, there has been no progress.

Commitment 26 is to an audit of the in-patient estate. In July 2014, it was confirmed that there are fewer beds, but no reasons or changing reasons were given for why people were in hospital and there was no significant consideration of a future strategy or action.

There has been nothing on commitment 30, which Richard Simpson mentioned, on women with borderline personality disorder in prison. On commitment 33, which is

“to develop appropriate specialist capability in respect of developmental disorders”—

Richard Simpson raised that in 2003—there has, again, been nothing. I appreciate that the strategy is due for completion later this year, but many targets have already been missed and there is a huge amount of work to do this year to meet the commitments.

As if that was not poor enough, the commitment to 18 weeks from referral to treatment for 90 per cent of psychological therapies patients was met by four out of 14 health boards. More than 14,000 people throughout the country are still waiting to be seen. That is not good enough. There has been plenty of time to plan for resources. The lack of alternative psychological therapies probably explains why so many people are on antidepressants. I will pick that up when I sum up.

I move amendment S4M-11975.3, to leave out from “looks forward” to “in improving” and insert:

“calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that additional investment is used effectively to increase NHS mental health bed numbers, including having sufficient adolescent beds to end the practice of children and young people being placed inappropriately in adult psychiatric wards, and staffing across all disciplines, including psychology, in order to meet existing waiting time targets and to bring forward improvements in”.