Chamber and committees

Our mental health policy response to the pandemic will remain fluid and adaptable and will be led emerging evidence as it becomes available. The Mental Health Research Advisory Group has been established to follow research developments to understand the medium and long term impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health and will help us to put evidence-based services and support in place to help meet the mental health needs of the population.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Scottish Government has introduced a number of new mental health supports and services, as well as extending existing services. Many of these will remain relevant and helpful in the event of a second wave of coronavirus.

The “Clear Your Head” campaign will continue to help the population look after their own mental health and wellbeing during the Covid-19 outbreak and could be adapted to support people through a second wave.

Support services including the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub, Breathing Space and Distress Brief Intervention Programme will remain available throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. NHS Mental Health services will also remain open and available for specialist mental health treatment for those who need it.

We will also continue to provide mental health and wellbeing support to the health and social care workforce.

(a) 10 care homes were issued with improvement notices under section 62 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 in 2019.

(b) No care homes had conditions applied to their registration in 2019.

(c) 1 service had its registration cancelled by means of a section 65 (Emergency cancellation) notice in 2019.

All care homes in Scotland are registered with the Care Inspectorate and these providers are required to notify the Care Inspectorate of a suspected or known outbreak of infection. This includes each individual case of COVID-19. The Care Inspectorate shares data on outbreak and deaths notification with Scottish Government daily. There are currently 1082 care homes in Scotland, of which 267 are classified as catering for vulnerable adults who are neither elderly nor have dementia. Of those, 75 care homes have notified the Care Inspectorate that there have been COVID-19 outbreaks on their premises.

That information is broken down as follows:

Care Home subtypes registered with the Care Inspectorate:

Scottish Water has made no request for additional borrowing. Scottish Ministers will continue to monitor the impacts of COVID-19 on Scottish Water and its customers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29040 on 8 June 2020. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Our guidance states that patients discharged to a care homes must have two negative tests before discharge. The discharging hospital should liaise with the care home to ensure a risk assessment is undertaken prior to discharge and that the home is able to provide the care required. Where testing is not possible (e.g. patient doesn’t consent or it would cause distress) and if discharged to care home within the 14-day isolation period then there must be an agreed care plan for the remaining period of isolation up to 14 days. For example there should be a suitable physical space and staff available for the delivery of care and support to a resident who is isolated for a period of time to support their safety and wellbeing.

We are using existing clauses within the Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Services contracts to support CalMac in the current circumstances.

These emergency measures have been taken to provide support to CalMac to allow them to cover costs whilst having lower revenues as a result of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

At the time of writing, up to £24.7m of emergency support has been approved for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services as part of the Accountable Officer (AO) Submissions process.

We maintain regular contact with CalMac on the financial impacts on them and to ensure we provide appropriate support. The exact figures for financial support will not be known until we know what levels of demand are likely to use the services as we emerge from lockdown and how well capacity can cope with demand. The financial outturn will also be impacted upon by any constraints on capacity arising out of the need to maintain physical distancing on passenger vessels to protect the health of passengers and crew. Therefore, it is likely that further reconciliations will take place at appropriate points in the contract.

Clinical advice and available scientific evidence suggests that it is too early to draw conclusions on what the long-term physical and mental health impacts of the Coronavirus outbreak will be. However, the Scottish Government is undertaking research and acting on the available evidence to provide support for those whose mental health may have suffered as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak or the necessary restrictions. This includes risks to health and wellbeing from problematic use of alcohol or other drugs.

In anticipation of potential negative impact on the mental health of the Scottish population, the Scottish Government has launched its Clear Your Head campaign and invested heavily in services to provide advice and support. Since the outbreak, over £6million has gone to initiatives such as expanding the NHS24’s Mental Health Hub to a 24/7 service and enhancing its Breathing Space helpline and web support services; rolling out the Distress Brief Intervention nation-wide; and extending digital therapies through computerised and internet-enabled Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. The Scottish Government has also provided an additional £20 million for alcohol and drug services in 2020-21 to support people experiencing harm from alcohol and other drugs and has provided additional funding for alcohol and drugs webchat helplines.

The data used for the exercise was a scenario involving a strain of influenza which affected under 25’s and the modelling was provided by Health Protection Scotland colleagues.

The methodology took the form of two table top exercises – one featuring the Health & Social Care response to an influenza pandemic and the other focusing on the additional deaths resulting from the pandemic. These were conducted over several locations across Scotland enabling over 600 people to participate and discuss the issues. The exercise report was published via SPICe following an earlier request.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29348 on 4 June 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx