Taking Action for Scotland’s Mental Health - SAMH’s Manifesto
We have published our manifesto ahead of the Scottish Parliament election on Thursday 7 May. Scotland is in a mental health crisis.
Suicides rates remain higher in Scotland than all other UK nations and in the most recent census, one in nine Scots said they have a mental health condition – more than double the rate in 2011.
Access to services is appalling. National waiting time targets for NHS Psychological Therapies have never been met. Over a third of children and young people referred to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are rejected.
Meanwhile, mental health stigma and discrimination remain a huge issue. Nowhere is this more stark than in the life expectancy gap which shows that people with mental illness die on average 15 years earlier than people without.
The current system is not meeting the needs of the people it was set up to help. The case for radical reform and increased investment has never been stronger.
That’s why we are calling on the next Scottish Government to:
- support our ‘Show Up’ anti-stigma campaign and commit to closing the mortality gap between people living with mental illness and people without by at least 10% by 2034 and by 25% by 2046.
- immediately increase both direct and NHS mental health spending, to meet the commitments made by the current Government and then grow these over the course of the next parliament, while prioritising a genuine shift in funding to early intervention and prevention.
- consider the evidence we bring forward from The Nook, our community mental health model, and provide sustainable funding towards a national rollout when the evidence shows it is effective – so that every community has easy, immediate access to quality mental health support.
- roll out a dedicated Community Link Work Service to all CAMHS teams in Scotland – costing just £600,000 annually – while ensuring that children and young people are at the heart of decision-making about their care more broadly.
- increase national suicide prevention funding to at least £6 million annually – in line with spending by the then-Scottish Executive between 2003 and 2006 – and ring-fence local funding to facilitate action to reduce deaths by suicide.
GET INVOLVED
Write to your local candidates about our ‘Show Up’ campaign and manifesto asks.
Or use our suggested mental health questions to ask candidates what their plans are for mental health at hustings or if they chap your door.
