Commitment 7 in Delivering for Mental Health states that “Key frontline mental health services, primarycare and accident and emergency staff will be educated and trained in using suicideassessment tools/suicide prevention training programmes. 50% of target staff willbe trained by 2010.” NHS staff who work in substance misuse will be considered aspart of frontline staff.

Also two recent reports- Mental Health in Scotland: Closing theGaps- Making a Difference and National Forum On Drug Related Deaths-Annual Report 2007 -highlighted the increasinglinkage between suicide prevention and substance misuse. Alcohol and Drug ActionTeams and suicide prevention groups are in the process of agreeing joint workingarrangements to ensure that local actions reflect the close linkages between theirwork.

Work by Choose Life at a nationallevel has included mainstreaming and integration of suicide prevention into substancemisuse treatment services.

Local authorities have a dutyto assess the needs of an individual where it appears to them that the individualmay be in need of community care services. In the light of that assessment, thelocal authority should then provide or arrange for any required services, takingaccount of the individual’s wishes.

If the service is provided toa disabled person under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1971, thelocal authority has a specific duty to provide that service to the individual. Theintroduction of single outcome agreements between the Scottish Government and localauthorities will not affect an individual’s legal entitlement to community careservices.

International studies have showna correlation between price and consumption, although it is clear that the relationshipis complex, and variable in different countries and across different products. Fromthe available evidence it is not possible to accurately predict the effect of priceincreases on consumption levels in Scotland.

The latest available informationis shown in the following tables.

Estimates, from a sample of generalpractices considered broadly representative of the Scottish population are givenin the following table. These data are not available by NHS board area:

Patients (Estimated)Consulting for Anorexia, Bulimia andOther Psychological Eating Disorders

Financial Years
2003-04	3,200
2004-05	2,900
2005-06	3,100

Note:Rounded to the nearest 100.

Patients discharged from non-obstetric, non psychiatric acute hospitals withany diagnosis of eating disorder are shown in the following table:

Years Ending 31 March	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Scotland	180	193	190	198	209
NHS Boards
Argyll and Clyde (former)	12	10	11	5	n/a
Ayrshire and Arran	11	12	8	19	12
Borders	2	3	3	4	5
Dumfries and Galloway	10	11	4	6	1
Fife	8	11	5	10	8
Forth Valley	8	8	6	10	4
Grampian	26	34	30	27	36
Greater Glasgow (and *Clyde)	32	34	31	28	*46
Highland (*including Argyll)	14	7	13	13	*14
Lanarkshire	14	14	17	26	20
Lothian	34	48	52	43	55
Orkney Islands	0	1	0	0	1
Shetland Islands	1	0	2	1	0
Tayside	11	7	10	6	14
Western Isles	1	0	1	3	1
Other	0	2	0	2	2

Source: SMR01.

Patients discharged from psychiatrichospitals with any diagnosis of eating disorder for the years available are shownin the following table:

Year Ending 31 March	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Scotland	124	93	103	104	113
NHS Boards
Argyll and Clyde (former)	12	5	8	8	8
Ayrshire and Arran	7	9	7	8	7
Borders	2	4	4	5	3
Dumfries and Galloway	3	2	5	5	7
Fife	9	6	8	11	5
Forth Valley	8	8	5	5	5
Grampian	8	11	6	8	14
Greater Glasgow	18	14	13	13	13
Highland	3	5	7	3	10
Lanarkshire	15	8	11	7	6
Lothian	25	16	18	19	22
Orkney	0	0	0	0	2
Tayside	13	5	9	12	9
Western Isles	1	0	2	1	2
Other	3	1	0	2	1

Source: SMR04.

Success will ultimately be determined by the experiences of children and families in how help is co-ordinated and delivered to them, how they are involved in these decisions and what the improvements in children''s outcomes are. This will form part of the evaluation process on which we expect an interim report this spring. However, considerable progress has been made in implementing Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) both in the pathfinder areas and in moving the agenda forward nationally. The pathfinders for children and young people experiencing domestic abuse and their project boards have been established and training of staff is underway in the new approach and forms, building on the work in Highland and in the National Domestic Abuse Delivery Group. Children and families have been engaged in the development of materials and protocols. In Highland, business processes have been streamlined. Guidance has been prepared, including a model for assessment of needs and risk and is being used in the training of staff initially in Inverness and subsequently across Highland. Since June 2007, revised procedures based on the GIRFEC approach there have resulted in 70% of children brought to the attention of the police for non-offending issues having their needs met other than by referral to the reporter. Nationally, we are promoting a Learning Community to enable areas to share and exchange experiences and have established a communication network to underpin this. All of these are milestones in some of the work streams needed to implement the GIRFEC approach.

The single outcome agreementswill contain measures and a mechanism for addressing under performance. These measuresand mechanism will be determined by the group overseeing the process towards theimplementation of the single outcome agreements.

The data requested is notheld centrally in the form requested.

The latest Scottish Stroke Care Audit monitors performanceagainst the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland clinical standards for stroke. Itsnational report includes data describingthe quality of stroke care in each acute hospital grouped by NHS board during 2005and 2006. These show that 15 out of 21 hospitals and 12 out of 14 boards now meet the standard of “80% ofpatients having a CT or MRI scan within 48 hours of admission”. The report alsofound that 79% of all Scottish stroke patients received a brain scan within 48hours of admission, an improvement of 5% on 2004.

There are a number of risk factorsassociated with aneurysms, including smoking and raised blood pressure. Allhealth improvement measures which encourage smoking cessation and reducing raisedblood pressure will reduce the risk of an aneurysm. In addition, we are consideringintroduction of a screening programme for abdominal aortic aneurysm following theadvice of the UK National Screening Committee.

Since 2005 the Scottish Governmenthas provided almost £3 million in additional interim funding to improve NHS wheelchairwaiting times. The funding has been used to purchase additional wheelchairs andto employ additional staff in the five rehabilitation centres in Scotland. Itis planned to spend a total of £16 million over the next three financial years (2008-09to 2011-12) to modernise NHS wheelchair and seating services.

Following the independent reviewof NHS wheelchair and seating services, a project board has been established anda project manager has been appointed. The project team will assess, prioritise andimplement the recommendations of the review, including those recommendations thatrelate to the provision of wheelchairs that meet users’ medical, postural and socialneeds.

I refer the member to the answersto questions S3W-7723 and S3W-7724 on 16 January 2008. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the questionS2W-7857 on 15 January 2008. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.