Meeting of the Parliament 21 January 2014
I very much welcome the tone of the debate and appreciate the fact that all members support the motion. Over the years we have been able to share a common purpose in many social policy areas—not just suicide prevention, but the wider mental health agenda and key points in our drugs policy agenda. I am pleased that we have been able to continue to do that today.
I was struck by what Graeme Pearson said about the sadness of having a debate about suicide prevention, because any loss of life through suicide is a tragedy. However, as I said in my opening remarks, a key part of tackling issues around suicide is to talk about suicide, raise awareness of the issues and engage in a debate about how we can help to prevent suicide. I am sure that Graeme Pearson agrees that there is no better way to set an example than by having a debate of the tone and nature of the one that we have had in our national Parliament today. As Christine Grahame said, over the past 15 years Parliament has had a strong record of debating mental health policy and suicide prevention issues.
I have the pleasure of meeting delegations from other parts of the world who come to Scotland to look at policies that we are taking forward in the health portfolio. Last week, the Danish health minister came over to look at our patient safety programme and to consider what the Danes can learn from that. We have had delegations here to look at our mental health policy. Internationally Scotland is—believe it or not—viewed as being a progressive country in respect of its overall mental health policy and the approach that it has taken over the past 14 or 15 years. That is also the case with suicide prevention. It is recognised that the trend in Scotland over the past decade or so for a reduction in the number of suicides, against a rising number globally, means that Scotland is doing some of the right things. I think that that has happened because the Scottish Parliament has allowed devolution to put much greater focus on such issues than was previously the case. That is to the credit of the Parliament, previous Administrations and the present Administration.