Hansard

I agree with Alex Cole-Hamilton and others that we face a mental health crisis in Scotland. We faced that crisis before the pandemic, with exceptionally long waiting lists for mental health support and therapy, and chronic workforce pressures. Most tragically of all, recorded suicides have increased year on year since 2017, despite the promise that was made by the Scottish Government in its 2018 “Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Action Plan” to reduce suicides by a fifth by 2022.

Then we come to Covid-19. We are just one month away from the one-year milestone from when the whole country went into its first lockdown. We now know more about Covid-19 as a virus, but we also know more about its impact on society. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has highlighted data that shows that

“high levels of psychological distress … have doubled during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

The impact of the pandemic is being felt far and wide. Inclusion Scotland stated that its research

“throughout the periods of lockdown uncovered a mental health emergency for disabled people in Scotland who told us in no uncertain terms that they were being ‘pushed to the brink’.”

Covid-19 has tested everyone, but there are many people for whom it has just been too much to cope with. Although there is light on the horizon with vaccines being rolled out, cases and infections falling and the prospect of a slow return to some normality, we know that this event will have lasting effects on many people in our society.

It is right to note that in November 2019 we debated this same issue and the Scottish National Party Government appeared to be in a state of denial about the extent of the crisis that we face. Fast forward to today and the crisis has been exacerbated, with waiting lists stretched and people waiting months for treatment. It is completely unacceptable for the SNP to blame the United Kingdom Government for that, as it does in its amendment today, in a blatant attempt to shift the blame for where we now are.

The crisis has been long in the making and the Scottish Government has been in power for 14 years—the crisis is its responsibility and its alone. The fact is that the Government has taken its eye completely off the ball; we can see how that has impacted on mental health services across Scotland. Inclusion Scotland has highlighted that for the quarter ending September 2020, just 60 per cent of children and young people were seen within 18 weeks, as opposed to the 90 per cent that should have been seen as per Government targets. That is six in 10, when it should be nine in 10.

According to the latest child and adolescent mental health services data, almost 1,000 children and young people have waited more than a year to begin vital treatment, and of the near 23,600 patients who were waiting for mental health treatment in September 2020, around 3,800 had been waiting more than a year.

All those figures paint a picture of vulnerable people waiting to receive vital treatment and services that are completely unable to cope with demand. That not surprising, given that there have been warnings about workforce pressures for many years. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has said that nearly one in 10 consultant psychiatry posts was vacant in its last census in 2019, which was a year-on-year increase of nearly a third, and there is a one in six consultant vacancy rate in CAMHS.

Before the pandemic, the Government pledged to recruit 800 mental health workers by April 2021, but we know that as at July 2020—the most recent figures available—it had fallen far short of that target. It is clear that we need to invest drastically in our mental health workforce in order to clear the growing backlog of patients who are waiting. Only then will we be able to deliver a mental health service that meets the needs of the people of Scotland, especially our young people.

The Scottish Government is still failing to recognise the challenges that we face on mental health, and the Covid-19 pandemic has heightened many of those challenges. We need a Government that will focus on tackling the mental health crisis head-on, rather than burying its head in the sand. We support the motion today and encourage others to support our amendment.

I move amendment S5M-24138.2, to insert at end:

“; notes with concern the potential for an unsustainable increase in demand for CAMHS and other mental health services, many of which already experience unacceptably long waiting times; recognises the need for both improved access to NHS mental health services and greater support for third sector organisations to reduce waiting times and deliver urgently needed care; considers that maintaining good mental health is as important as maintaining good physical health, and believes that further efforts are required to promote self-care for mental health.”