Chamber and committees

Up to date information on membership, remit and dates of meetings are available here Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans Health Joint Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government is investing £250 million in the National Drugs Mission over the life of the Parliament to save and improve lives of people who use drugs, including veterans. For the first time this year we will have data on the number of veterans accessing drug and alcohol treatment services, using the new Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISy). We will use this data to inform our work to better meet the needs of veterans who use drugs to support them to achieve their recovery goals.

Scottish Government facilitates and provides secretariat to quarterly meetings with our NHS Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans Champions Network. These Network meetings enable Scottish Government, relevant stakeholders and Champions to exchange information, support one another in delivering work, share best practice and provide updates in relation to veterans health.

The Scottish Government actively participates in a number of cross border networks through MoD/Department of Health Partnership Board and Department of Health and Social Care sub groups. These groups have UK wide representation and provide an opportunity to share information regarding veterans health.

In addition we have regular meetings with Office of Veterans Affairs and NHS England.

The Scottish Government works with key veteran stakeholders, NHS Armed Forces and Veterans Champions and through the Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans Health Joint Group to ensure we create the conditions for and drive forward progress towards the ‘Distinctive Scottish Approach to Veterans Health’ as set out by the Scottish Veterans Commissioner.

The action taken by Scottish Government against this set of recommendations can be found here SVC Annual Progress Report: Findings | (scottishveteranscommissioner.org)

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13888 on‎ 27 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

A letter was sent to Health Boards from National Clinical Director on 30 December 2020 requesting that Wheelchair and Seating services maintain and replace wheelchairs used by veterans to at least a level commensurate with that issued to them at the time of their discharge, provided it is safe and continues to meet their clinical and wheeled mobility needs. It confirmed that any additional costs associated with servicing, maintaining, replacing – which are expected to be low – will be met by the providers.

Patient referrals and self-referrals to cCBT services from 2017 to 2022, by Board.

Costs for computerised cognitive behavioural therapies are paid at the national level rather than split between NHS Boards. National costs are provided in the following table.

We established the Digital Mental Health Programme in late 2020 to oversee ongoing development of cCBT and other digital mental health services. The development and expansion of digital services was supported by a national implementation team.

The number of available cCBT treatments has increased from 1 in 2019 to 27 in 2022. The introduction of self-referral treatments, Sleepio and Daylight have greatly increased access to digital treatments with 25,668 self-referrals in 2022, compared to 12,356 the year before.

These numbers continue to rise, with usage of cCBT programs increasing from 22,385 in 2020 to 66,163 in 2022. We continue to invest in the long term sustainability of digital therapies (including cCBT), including innovation, staff training, evaluation and inclusion.