Meeting of the Parliament 12 September 2018
I will certainly go on to talk about some of the training that is part of the action plan. I fully acknowledge what Liam McArthur said about the impact of suicide on rural communities—it has an impact on any community.
I am working with my colleague, the Minister for Parliamentary Business and Veterans, on support for veterans, and I am clear that our action plan includes everyone. Everyone deserves the support and care that they need at the time when they need it—that is our vision. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, including all serving armed forces personnel and veterans living in Scotland, is able to access the highest possible standard of safe, effective and person-centred healthcare.
We know that there are some population groups for whom there is an elevated suicide risk, which is why our action plan includes a commitment to identify and facilitate targeted preventative actions to address such risks. To ensure effective outcomes, it is essential that that work is underpinned by the latest evidence so that we target resources appropriately.
The step change that we want to achieve requires us to be more focused and to work at pace. I call on leaders at the national, regional and local levels to be proactive in creating a culture that ensures that learning is taken from every death by suicide in order to help prevent further suicides.
Collaborative leadership is at the heart of our approach. To facilitate that and to drive improvement, we are establishing a national suicide prevention leadership group. The group will ensure progress on the action plan and will make recommendations on supporting the creation and delivery of local suicide prevention action plans. Members of the leadership group will be drawn from across the third sector, the public and private sectors and people with lived experience. The group will reflect a collaborative, inclusive approach to leading the changes that we need.