Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-24350

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in each local authority have received direct payments for their mental health care in each of the last 10 years.

The number of people with mental health problems who are in receipt of Self-directed Support (Direct Payments) for Scotland is provided in the following table:

Number of People with Mental Health Problems who are in Receipt of Self-Directed Support (Direct Payments), Scotland, 2001-08

	Number of People with Mental Health Problems
2001	*
2002	6
2003	10
2004	16
2005	43
2006	62
2007	69
2008	73

Source: Self-directed Support (Direct Payments) survey, Scottish Government.

Note: *Disclosure control (cell suppression) has been applied due to small numbers.

Information is only available from 2001.

Limited Local Authority analyses for those people with mental health problems are available only for 2006-08 (due to the small numbers involved) in the following web publications:

Direct Payments Scotland 2006 (see Table 10)

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/09/25160444/0

Statistics Release Direct Payments Scotland 2007 (see Table 10)

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/09/24155213/0

Self-directed Support (Direct Payments), Scotland, 2008 (see Annex Table 2)

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/10/27092036/0

Voices of Experience (VOX) (hosted by the Mental Health Foundation) has been funded to investigate the experiences of people with mental health difficulties in relation to Self-directed Support (SDS) and to develop and disseminate an information resource for service users. Social work staff will be provided with a support resource giving examples of best practice and advice on supporting mental health service users.

Question reference: S3W-24341

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason NHS Highland has the lowest level of staffing for mental health psychology services at 2.85 per 100,000 population compared to NHS Fife at 9.71 per 100,000 population, as highlighted in the Audit Scotland report, Overview of mental health services.

Different NHS boards have different configurations of services, including different numbers of psychologists, doctors, nurses and allied health professionals and these reflect different patterns of service structure and historical investment.

We have recently announced an additional £6.5 million to increase the child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) specialist psychology workforce. This is in addition to the £6 million announced for specialist CAMHS services previously.

Question reference: S3W-24349

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason there is a range in the amount of money transferred from the NHS to local authorities to support community mental health services, ranging from £2.72 per head of population in Fife to £35.33 in Greater Glasgow and Clyde as highlighted in the Audit Scotland report, Overview of mental health services.

Resource transfers between NHS boards and local government generally reflect local agreements in respect of the financial consequences of the closure of long stay hospitals and other local service changes so will vary from area to area depending on the extent of service re-alignment.

Discussions are taking place with COSLA to assess the current arrangements for agreeing and managing resource transfer to ensure an appropriate consistency across Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-24330

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to ensure that the Scottish Government and local partners work together to deliver services for people with mental health problems as recommended in the Audit Scotland report, Overview of mental health services.

Mental health remains a priority for the Scottish Government and we are working with all partners to deliver on our innovative programme for change and improvement in mental health services. We are making progress in delivering the published challenging national performance targets which cover the full spectrum of mental health care.

We have published, and NHS boards are now introducing, standards for integrated care pathways to ensure the right care is provided at the right time. These will be accredited by NHS boards later this year. Through the Mental Health Benchmarking Project and the Mental Health Collaborative Information Project we are now working with NHS boards and local authorities to ensure information is available that allows all partners to measure and compare services.

Question reference: S3W-24337

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reasons the prescribing of antidepressants continues to rise.

This is a complex issue. There are four reasons why anti-depressant prescribing can continue to rise. More people may be anxious or depressed at a level which would meet the guidance for prescribing of anti-depressants. Secondly, more people may present to their GP, perhaps because of the reduction in stigma or increasing public understanding of mental health issues. Thirdly, prescribing practice may change. Fourth, the range of illnesses for which antidepressants are used may increase over time.

Question reference: S3W-24340

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason NHS Fife has four times as many staff working in mental health psychology as NHS Highland, which have average waiting times for psychological therapies of 58 and 77 weeks respectively, as highlighted in the Audit Scotland report, Overview of mental health services.

Different NHS boards have different configurations of services, including different numbers of doctors, nurses, psychologists and allied health professionals and these reflect different patterns of service structure and historical investment.

Many common psychological therapies, including those such as cognitive behavioural therapy, are routinely and appropriately delivered by trained nurses, social workers and others and so there is no direct relation between the number of psychologists and access to psychological therapies.

We have recently announced an additional £6.5 million to increase the number of psychologists working in specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). This is in addition to the £6 million announced for specialist CAMHS services previously.

Question reference: S3W-24347

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how the target for early diagnosis and management of patients with dementia will be measured, as highlighted in the Audit Scotland report, Overview of mental Health Services.

Question reference: S3W-24326

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will monitor the amount of money spent by local authorities on mental health services.

The concordat with local authorities means that the relationship between government and local authorities is one of partnership and co-operation rather than direct management and monitoring.

The Scottish Government Mental Health Division has, through the Mental Health Benchmarking Group local authority representatives, developed a set of core definitions to measure local authority mental health community services and their function. These are currently being reviewed by the Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW) and, through them, individual local authorities. The Scottish Government Mental Health Division has recently appointed a Social Work Benchmarking Manager to work with local authorities and government to look at the practicalities of this data collection and to explore the current information systems are fit for purpose to collect this data.

Agreement is being sought through each local authority for the above work to progress in a way that fits with their individual systems and local needs but provides, through common definitions, a picture of services across Scotland. A further complexity is that individuals with mental health problems often appropriately access community services that are not specific to mental health and it is therefore difficult to quantify this spend on these individuals in these services.

Question reference: S3W-24332

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how local partners will work to identify and address any gaps in mental health services and the availability of psychological therapies as recommended in the Audit Scotland report, Overview of mental health services.

We are supporting NHS boards and their partners to provide services that take account of the evidence that is already available for what works in mental health services and what leads to better outcomes to meet the needs of the people assessed as needing them.

For psychological therapies, we are working closely with NHS Education for Scotland and NHS boards to develop a range of initiatives to support the development around our commitment to expand and increase access to psychological therapies to meet patient''s needs better and sooner. This includes a tool for NHS boards to use in reviewing available evidence and in considering which psychological interventions might best be used to meet local need and demand for psychological therapies.

We will also be giving consideration in the coming months to establishing a waiting time target to access psychological therapies. This builds on our work already underway to establish a waiting time target for access to specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). To support this work, we are providing £6.5 million new money over the next three years to develop specialist CAMHS psychology workforce and support additional training places and posts.

Question reference: S3W-24336

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of people with (a) drug and (b) alcohol problems is likely to develop a mental health problem as a result of such addiction.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

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