Yes. I am in my final sentence, Presiding Officer.

I would ask that the minister looks at DGLocator and how its functionality works. I welcome the steps that the Government is taking.

Prior to the pandemic, there was already an increasing demand for mental health services in Scotland, and we know that that demand has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Covid-19 has changed many aspects of our lives, and it has allowed for a far greater understanding of the need to take mental health seriously and have a society that puts the wellbeing of its citizens first and foremost.

The exacerbated mental health challenges have also shown the need for greater emphasis on mental health services, and they have created a need for improved service delivery, including through better integration with primary care and the third sector.

I welcome that significant progress has already been made by the Scottish Government in expanding capacity and access to mental health services in GP settings. Action 15 of the document, “Mental Health Strategy: 2017-2027”, outlines the Scottish Government’s commitment to funding 800 additional mental health workers in key settings, including GP practices, all accident and emergency departments, every police station custody suite and prisons. As of 1 July 2021, an additional 654.3 full-time equivalent mental health roles have been filled using action 15 funding. That equates to 82 per cent of the total overall target. Since 2019, the Scottish Government has made available more than £51 million to deliver action 15, and it will continue to invest in 2022 to ensure that the commitment is met.

In addition, it is welcome that the Scottish Government has invested more than £60 million to create provision for local authorities across Scotland to employ mental health counsellors. I credit Dumfries and Galloway Council for really taking the initiative on board. The local authority has named its counsellor staff “youth information officers”. The name is used to reduce stigma, which is hugely important. The staff work as part of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Youth Enquiry Service team, accessing schools and young people across the region from Monday all the way through to Saturday. The staff are also forming strong links with local primary care and NHS staff, and responding to new demands arising from the pandemic.

I welcome that the Scottish Government has provided additional funding and support for crucial mental health services. Since March 2020, more than £18 million of dedicated funding to help to respond to the specific mental health challenges of the pandemic has been allocated.

I am pleased that the Government has supported the mental health and wellbeing of our front-line health and social care staff. During the pandemic, I have continued to work as a registered nurse and had direct contact with many health professional colleagues. They say that they have been resilient, but some of them have also suffered from stress due to the challenges. Therefore, the money to help with the health and wellbeing of front-line healthcare workers is important, and it is very welcome.

More than £1 million has been invested in the roll-out of the distress brief intervention programme on a national basis, including to people under 18. DBI includes seeing front-line health, police, paramedic and primary care staff who are trained in mental health first aid response. The DBI programme is hugely important, and it demonstrates how different agencies can work in partnership with primary care.

DBI has already been accessed by more than 4,000 individuals in the NHS 24 pathway, but I know that many more have already been involved. It has been proven to support people who are particularly at risk of acute mental ill-health, including people who are struggling with eating disorders.

At yesterday’s meeting of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee—and previously at the mental health cross-party group, of which I am co-convener—we heard that there has been an increase in eating disorders during the pandemic. I also have concerns over the number of suicides and reports of persons who self-harm.

The Covid restrictions have prevented face-to-face engagement. I ask the minister to ensure that DBI, as well as other online cognitive behavioural therapy support, continues to receive the funding that is needed to move those services forward.

My final point relates to social prescribing. A large part of the Scottish Government’s revised vision for mental health focuses on the importance of social prescribing and on the third sector playing a crucial role in promoting positive health and wellbeing.

I am a member of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, and I was a member of its predecessor committee in the previous parliamentary session, the Health and Sport Committee. One of the challenges that we recognise is that primary care practitioners do not know which services are available to refer or signpost people to. That issue was raised at the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee just yesterday, as part of our current child and adolescent mental health inquiry. Support is available and signposting people to that support is vitally important.

Third Sector Dumfries and Galloway has created a website with an app called DGLocator to help signpost people to the services that are available. DGLocator is similar to A Local Information System for Scotland—ALISS—which is a Government-funded service.

DGLocator, which lists all local services, is up to date, and is easy to navigate and access. It is linked to GP practices across Dumfries and Galloway, to make it easier for link workers and for support to be signposted. I would ask that the minister—

My other question is on the flipside of that. If somebody acquires a complication because of mesh removal surgery, such as urethral transection or something in the ureter that requires additional surgery, such as a urostomy, is that covered as something that happened because of the removal surgery?

I have a couple of questions about stigma, which was one of the issues that Professor Hazel Borland mentioned in her opening comments. It is good to see you here this morning, Hazel.

I will cite one example in our committee paper relating to stigma. There is a summary from the Promise in August 2020, which talks about the language that we use and explains how we should not use stigmatising language. There are also specific examples of how to act, such as not showing up in branded cars wearing lanyards or in uniforms outside people’s homes or schools. Can Professor Borland talk a little bit about what actions could or should be taken to continue to tackle stigma so that families feel confident that they will not experience stigma when accessing help?

It is just a quick question to ask Dr O’Kelly to clarify a matter. If a person needs anticoagulant therapy, which would require them to have an extended pre-operative assessment and may even affect their post-op recovery, leading to a delayed discharge to enable the anticoagulants to be managed, that would be covered as part of the mesh removal procedure. Is that correct?

Sure; thank you.

It has—

Given the 23 December announcement by the World Health Organization that the virus can spread through short and long-range aerosol, or that it has short and long-range airborne transmission, what on-going assessment is being made regarding the issuing of FFP2 and FFP3 face masks for front-line healthcare workers as a first-line prevention measure against acquiring Covid, which is already causing high sickness and absence among healthcare workers in Scotland? I remind colleagues that I am part of NHS Dumfries and Galloway’s vaccination team.

Tuesday this week marked the 33rd anniversary of the Lockerbie air disaster, which resulted in 270 people from 21 nations losing their lives when Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in my South Scotland region. I remember the night well as I was working in Dumfries and Galloway royal infirmary at the time, and I remember the huge emergency service response.

Will the First Minister join me in marking the 33rd anniversary of the disaster and sending our thoughts to the families of all those who lost their lives, and in paying tribute to all those who were involved in the huge emergency service response on Wednesday 21 December 1988? [Applause.]

It is jist comin fae ower there. A few folk have been sceptical, and I have invited all the sceptics to discuss the matter. My door is open to anybody who wants to have a conversation about what they think the issues might be and why they might oppose the move.

We have opportunities with our otter pools, the 7stanes, our miles of bonnie rivers, our lochs and the Solway coast. If Bob Doris comes back to Dumfries and Galloway, he will find that it is an outdoor rural adventure. Dumfries, as the first rural city in Scotland, will have an amazing opportunity to pursue a sustainable and green economic recovery from the pandemic.

Our world-leading food and drink sector, including local breweries and gin, whisky and rum distilleries, provides first-class visitor destinations and would hugely benefit from Dumfries becoming a city. Dumfries also has worldwide importance in innovation and medical history, as the first-ever ether anaesthetic in Europe was delivered in 1846 by doctors Scott and McLauchlan at Dumfries infirmary. As a toon, we satisfy the cultural, social, environmental and innovation criteria for recognition as Scotland’s eighth city.

The Scottish Government publication “Scotland’s Agenda for Cities”, which was revised in 2016, states that we want

“A Scotland where our cities and their regions power Scotland’s economy for the benefit of all.”

That was published before the realities of the Brexit harms were known and before the Covid pandemic. I am keen to hear from the minister what is next for the vision for cities and whether it is being revised to show how Scotland’s cities can help to power economic recovery for our regions, bearing in mind that we will have one new city in Scotland by March 2022.

For all those reasons and to aid with post-pandemic economic recovery, Mark Jardine of the Dumfries People’s Project submitted the bid with complete support from Dumfries and Galloway Council, led by Provost Tracey Little. The bid is also supported by local charities, businesses, schools, young people, community groups and organisations such as Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership.

Geographically, Dumfries would be the first city in Scotland for those heading north and the only city in the South Scotland region. If it was awarded city status, that could increase tourism, attract business and bolster investment into the entire region. Dumfries would truly be the queen of the south.

One benefit of city status is good transport links with other cities and easy access to the varied beauty of rural Scotland. We know that many aspects of transport infrastructure across South Scotland, such as bus and train links, the A75 and the A77, need improved. City status will bring greater emphasis on those issues and more attention to the need for roads investment. That will be achieved only through wider attention to our whole region.

When Perth, Stirling and Inverness received city status, they went from strength to strength, with greater job creation, increased inward migration, increased visitor numbers and improved transport infrastructure to connect them with other Scottish cities. I want that benefit for Dumfries and oor wider region. I ask the Scottish Government to do all that it can to help with that aim, so that Dumfries can be the newest Scottish city and the queen of the south. I look forward to hearing colleagues’ contributions.