I remind members that I am a registered mental health nurse, with current Nursing and Midwifery Council registration.

Having been a mental health nurse for more than 30 years, I firmly believe that mental health is one of the most important public health issues that is faced by Scotland today. We know that the pandemic had a significant impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing, with necessary restrictions exacerbating some people’s existing mental health problems. On top of that, the cost of living crisis is having a further detrimental impact on people. Poverty in childhood and among adults can cause poor mental health through social stresses, stigma and trauma.

The debate taking place in mental health awareness week affords us all the opportunity to restate our shared commitment to improving the mental health and wellbeing of the nation.

Compared with when I started out in my career as a mental health nurse, people are now speaking far more openly about their mental health challenges and greater numbers of people are, ultimately, seeking help.

Of course, the challenge lies in ensuring that people can access mental health support where and when they need it. I believe that we have taken great strides in that regard, and I will acknowledge two particular examples. Only last month, Scottish Government investment, through the recovery and renewal fund, supported the creation of a new CAMHS outpatient facility at Udston hospital in Hamilton, which serves NHS Lanarkshire. The new facility will support children and young people from my constituency to access high-quality mental health care.

In looking at mental health support for children and young people, one of the policies that I am most proud of having driven when I was Minister for Mental Health was on ensuring that every secondary school has access to counselling services. Counselling can help children and young people to explore, understand and overcome issues in their lives—whether they are due to exam stress, trauma or bereavement—and to improve their resilience. The benefit of the service is that it meets the needs of the individual at an early stage and complements the range of approaches that are already available in schools to support the mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing of children and young people.

From my constituency casework, I know that although services might be available to individuals, some people are experiencing unacceptable waits for mental health treatment.

We also continue to hear of the tragedy of people dying by suicide. Although the number of such deaths has fallen in recent years, the Scottish Government must continue to use every lever at its disposal to drive it down further.

The Scottish Government is investing and is taking action to help to ensure that people can access a range of types of help to match their needs, and at the earliest stage possible. Direct investment in mental health services has more than doubled since 2020-21, and the published budget for mental health services will increase by 139 per cent over this session of Parliament. The Scottish Government is continuing to seek further improvements and to invest in growing the workforce.

CAMHS staffing has more than doubled under this Government to a current all-time high. Indeed, in NHS Lanarkshire, which serves my constituency, there has been an increase of more than 400 per cent in CAMHS staffing since September 2006.

As a result of those actions and continued investment, we are now seeing evidence of significant and sustained progress in many areas across Scotland, including continuing record levels of activity and some of the most positive changes in waiting lists that we have seen for more than half a decade.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving mental health, whether that is through the creation and reform of services or through investment in the workforce. We will continue to take actions to ensure that the people of Scotland have access to the mental health care and support that they need in order that they can navigate the challenges that they face.

Thank you.

I am sorry, Ms White, but we missed the beginning of your question.

Sandesh Gulhane has a supplementary question.

Tess White has questions on this theme, and she is joining us remotely.

I invite David Torrance to continue with the theme of communication and information.

I am aware of the recent appointment of the women’s health champion. I absolutely appreciate why menopause, heart disease in women and endometriosis have been prioritised within her role, as those are very important areas that the Scottish Government is working on. However, I am keen to hear how you see the women’s health champion’s role in promoting good pelvic health, if I can put it that way, when it comes to the education that Evelyn Tweed spoke about. I am also keen to hear about the Government’s plans for reviewing the incontinence strategy.

That would be really helpful, given that we want to move to a preventative strategy as opposed to treatment and to give women and girls the information that they need about looking after the pelvic floor. That is important for the committee to hear about.

We will move to the next theme, with Carol Mochan.

We move to questions from Sandesh Gulhane.