- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
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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.
Answer
The target is measured by the number of people with dementia recorded as such on the GP dementia register.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how improvement in the care and treatment of people with dementia will be measured in the HEAT target.
Answer
The HEAT target on dementia focuses on a diagnosis of dementia and inclusion on the GP register. Inclusion on the register triggers automatic physical health reviews and carer assessments, both of which are of direct benefit for those who suffer from dementia and their carers.
The target it supported, by the piloting in three NHS board areas of effective practical steps for better and earlier identification and interventions and also awareness raising work to ensure people seek help at the earliest possible opportunity.
These initiatives are also supported by the development of local integrated care pathways (ICPs) to ensure that the right care is available at the right time in the context of local ICP standards developed by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
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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.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. The Scottish Government publication Closing the Gaps “ Making a Difference, published on 10 December 2007, states that the UK Psychiatric Morbidity Study on adults living in private households showed that 12% of males and 6% of females had some form of substance dependence combined with a current psychiatric illness.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive when the review of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 will be published.
Answer
The review, together with the Scottish Government''s response and a consultation paper, will be published shortly.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will work with local partners to collect information about services in the community to enable better planning and development of services as recommended in the Audit Scotland report, Overview of mental health services.
Answer
The Scottish Government initiated the Mental Health NHS Benchmarking Project in 2007, which is mentioned on page 26 of the Audit Scotland report, to obtain more comprehensive information around both inpatient and community services.
In relation to community mental health services, common definitions of services have been established across Scotland so that they are able to measure and compare the services in each NHS board area in terms of type of service, availability and staffing. This data collection has been piloted in the NHS board areas and a further collection round is due for completion in August 2009. A costing pilot to relate costs of community services to individual services has been completed in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Forth Valley. A recent workshop was held with Finance Officers in each NHS board area in Scotland to explain the methodology to them and each NHS board will now attempt to match costs to community services by the end of the year.
Local authorities also provide community mental health services both directly or through the voluntary sector. The Mental Health Benchmarking Group has representation from the local authority and through them we have approached the Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW) who have taken forward a piece of work to commission common core definitions around local authority services. This report has now to go to ADSW and local authorities for consultation and approval.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how reductions in antidepressant prescribing can be achieved given the high levels of vacancies and long waiting times in psychological and psychiatric services as highlighted in the Audit Scotland report, Overview of mental health services.
Answer
The antidepressant target is intended to focus attention on prescribing practice and medication review as well as alternatives to medication, including psychological therapies but also exercise and lifestyle changes.
For psychological therapies, we are working closely with NHS Education for Scotland and NHS boards to develop a range of initiatives to support 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).
We continue to fund the Breathing Space telephone advice and signposting service for people experiencing low mood, depression or anxiety and NHS Living Life, a pilot telephone cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) service for people who are feeling low, depressed or anxious.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
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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.
Answer
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.
