Meeting of the Parliament 06 January 2015
I congratulate Jamie Hepburn on his first Government motion and welcome him to his new post—I am pleased that mental health is included in his title. We will be happy to work with him constructively.
It is fitting that mental health is the topic of one of the first debates of the new year because, as this year will see the end of the current mental health strategy for Scotland, we have a golden opportunity to change the way in which mental health is viewed and treated. We need to have a meaningful new strategy in place a year from now.
For too long, mental health has not been spoken about. In treatment terms, it has been the Cinderella service in the national health service. The Royal College of Nursing briefing stated that
“mental health is often the poor relation to physical health when it comes to priority and funding within the NHS.”
I welcome the fact that we have HEAT targets for mental health services in Scotland, although they do not go far enough.
I want the Scottish Government to follow the UK Government’s lead by clearly laying it out in legislation that mental and physical ill health have equal recognition. I do not think that that is what Jamie Hepburn described when he talked about wanting to improve services. Of course services should be improved, but that does not mean that mental and physical health services will be equal.