Meeting of the Parliament 27 November 2019
Mental health is a priority for the Government. It is not a short-term priority and it is not a here today, gone tomorrow political issue. Instead, mental health is a significant challenge across the globe and we in Scotland are determined to respond in an ambitious and systematic manner.
Together with our partners in local government, the NHS, the third sector and the wider mental health community, we are focusing on an approach to mental health that encompasses prevention, early intervention and clinical services. We are doing that against a backdrop of a decade of austerity, which has impacted negatively on public services and directly on people across Scotland who rely on public services. The welfare reforms that the current and previous United Kingdom Governments have imposed on some of Scotland’s most vulnerable people and communities have had a particularly detrimental impact on the mental health of the people who often need the most support.
This Government has a strong record of mitigating the worst impacts of austerity, and continues to do so. However, it is not realistic to argue that austerity, which was imposed on Scotland, has had no impact on the quality of life and therefore on the mental wellbeing of people in Scotland.