Meeting of the Parliament 06 January 2015
I also welcome Jamie Hepburn to his job, in particular to his role as the minister for mental health, a role that I know he will give his full attention to.
I welcome the strategies that previous Governments and the present Government have put forward to tackle mental health issues, in particular the see me campaign that Dr Simpson mentioned. It was launched in 2002 to tackle the stigma of mental health, and I think that it has been a huge success. I look forward to more such strategies; the campaign has raised awareness of mental health issues and has been welcomed by communities—certainly it has been welcomed in the community in Glasgow that I represent.
The mental health strategy that was published in 2012, with its seven key themes and its four key change areas, is an important piece of work. I know that Mary Scanlon mentioned it. I am particularly keen on two of the key change areas that are mentioned. The first is
“Rethinking how we respond to common mental health problems”
and the second is
“Community, inpatient and crisis mental health services”.
The community services part is particularly interesting to me.
I raised those two areas because when we work in the community, we see how mental health services are delivered in the community. I wonder whether, if changes in those areas were applied properly, they would be able to enhance the services that are there at the moment.
I want to pick up on two issues. First, action in the two key change areas that I mentioned might have enabled one local service in my constituency—the Charlie Reid centre on Elmbank Street—to stay open, and might even have enhanced its service provision. Unfortunately, the centre, which was much loved by users and staff alike, closed its doors in May 2014 after 21 years of service in Glasgow. When I used to visit, there were so many different things going on that it was a sheer joy to be there, and it was clear that people got a lot out of the centre. The reason for its closure was the withdrawal of core funding by Glasgow City Council and its reliance on personal funds and direct payments.
If changes are applied in those two key areas, other such centres may be able to stay open. There is no doubt that the closure of the Charlie Reid centre will have a knock on-effect on the Glasgow Association for Mental Health, as my colleague John Mason will discuss in his speech.
The second issue that I want to raise concerns the isolation of older people. Isolation can lead to depression, which can have a devastating impact on people’s lives. Once again, I look to the two key change areas that I highlighted, in particular services for local communities.
I wonder whether local authorities have been involved in developing the new strategy. Many of the community-led initiatives in my area are closing down or not being used because funding has been withdrawn by local authorities. For example, Glasgow City Council has withdrawn money from elderly people in my area who go to daycare centres, which are a lifeline for many of them. Some people have been charged £15 a day to go to those centres.
I know that it is Jamie Hepburn’s first outing as the minister with responsibility for this portfolio, but perhaps in summing up he could address the issues that I have raised with regard to local authorities being involved, or more involved, in the development of the strategy that will—as members have mentioned—be published at the end of the year.
16:47