Current status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 30 November 2016
To ask the Scottish Government how it will take forward each of the priorities for its new mental health strategy that have been suggested by the Mental Welfare Commission in its 2015-16 annual report.
The Scottish Government welcomes the Mental Welfare Commission’s 2015-16 Annual Report, published 8 September 2016. We have noted the six priorities suggested by the Mental Welfare Commission, which are as follows:
To set a new target to reduce the huge disparity in life expectancy between people with mental health issues and the general population.
A call for more to be done for children and young people.
To end the unequal provision of care for people with mental ill health as opposed to physical ill health.
The new mental health strategy to be built around a rights-based approach.
To see services responding better to those who do not fit current health or care approach.
A new approach to workforce development, with a revised set of skills to deliver a modern mental health service.
These priorities were reflected in the Mental Welfare Commission’s written response to our engagement paper “Mental Health in Scotland – a ten Year Vision”. We are considering the Mental Welfare Commission’s views, as expressed in both that written response and in their Annual Report, very carefully ahead of the forthcoming publication of the ten-year Strategy.