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: S4W-11568

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the unmet need is in terms of mental health patients.

The indications are that clinicians in primary care in Scotland have been very effective in closing the treatment gap for patients with depression, but we recognise further work is needed in all settings to tackle this challenge. We will work with the Royal College of GPs and other partners to increase the number of people with long term conditions with a co-morbidity of depression or anxiety who are receiving appropriate care and treatment for their mental illness.

Question reference: S4W-11577

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-10769 by Michael Matheson on 13 November 2012, for what reason there was a 5.4% reduction in whole-time equivalent clinical staff employed in psychology services for people aged over 65 between 30 June 2011 and 30 June 2012.

NHS boards work at all times to ensure good quality psychological care is delivered by qualified staff which meets the needs of individuals in their local areas.

The 5.4% reduction represents two whole time equivalent staff across all professional groups. Variations can occur in staffing levels across NHS board psychology services due to the differences in how these services are tailored to meet local need across Scotland, and normal fluctuations in the recruitment and retention of staff.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering faster access to psychological therapies for those with mental illness and we have already seen improvements in service delivery through the on-going work of NHS Education Scotland to assess and develop workforce capacity to ensure a range of staff are equipped to deliver psychological therapies as part of their clinical practice.

Question reference: S4W-11570

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of NHS expenditure is related to mental health.

The percentage of NHS expenditure related to mental health for the period 2011-12 is shown in the following table:

Financial Year	Mental health expenditure¹ (£000)	NHS expenditure² (£000)	Percentage of NHS expenditure² related to mental health
2011-12	877,034	7,198,030	12.18%

Notes:

Mental health expenditure is recorded in the Costs Book (Report R340) within Hospital, Community and Resource Transfer data for the 14 geographic NHS boards, the State Hospital and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital.
NHS expenditure is recorded in the Costs Book (Report R300) and has been restricted to Hospital, Community and Resource Transfer data to give a more accurate comparison against mental health expenditure. NHS expenditure is also restricted here to the 14 geographic NHS boards, the State Hospital and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital for the same reason.

Source: ISD Scotland, Scottish Health Service Costs (Ref: IR2012-02113)

Question reference: S4W-11569

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of the population has a mental illness.

Information on patients with a mental illness admitted as inpatient, and treatments at outpatient clinics is routinely collected by NHS Scotland, as are contacts with GP services.

It is generally acknowledged however that that a large number of people with for example conditions such as anxiety and depression will remain unrecognised and untreated. For this reason, it is not possible to state with any confidence the number of people in Scotland who have a mental illness.

Information about people’s own perception and experience of their mental health are included within the Scottish Health Survey publications which can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/scottish-health-survey/Publications#a1.

Question reference: S4W-11573

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what is being done to ensure early (a) diagnosis of and (b) intervention for mental illness.

Better recognition and treatment of mental illness has been a long-standing priority for the Scottish Government, with a focus on depression and dementia. In the Mental Health Strategy we highlight early detection of psychosis, and intervention for first episode psychosis which provides better outcomes for individuals. Early intervention teams provide the necessary support and treatment for those who have had a first episode of psychosis, and aim to reduce relapse and admission times, improving clinical and social outcomes such as employment, education and training.

We made a commitment to identifying the key components that need to be in place within mental health services, to enable early intervention services to respond to first episode psychosis, and encourage adoption of first episode psychosis teams where that is a sensible local decision.

Question reference: S4W-11576

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many vacancies there are in each NHS board for (a) psychologists and (b) psychiatrists.

The data for Psychologist vacancies is held in the public domain, and can be found on the NHS Education for Scotland – Information Services Division (ISD) Psychology Services Workforce Data webpage at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/data-tables.asp?id=924#924.

The data for consultant psychiatrist vacancies is also in the public domain, on the ISD website and can be found at the link below to the consultants vacancies table:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2012-11-27/Consultant_Vacancies_S2012.xls?8253986

It should be noted that this table only shows vacancy data for consultant psychiatrists. Information on vacancies for other psychiatrists is not collected centrally.

Question reference: S4W-11575

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what is being done to raise awareness of mental health issues in all NHS boards.

Raising awareness of mental health issues in all NHS boards will be achieved through delivery of the Scottish Government’s new “Mental Health Strategy which was published on 13 August 2012. This brings our mental health improvement work and work to improve mental health services together for the first time in a single strategy.

We will work closely with our partners, including the NHS, local authorities, the third sector and service users and carers to successfully deliver the strategy. To support this, we will put in place arrangements to co-ordinate, monitor and performance manage progress on the national commitments outlined in the strategy.

This will include continuation of the twice yearly performance reviews with each NHS board where local progress on delivering improvements is reviewed; providing on-going support for the use of continuous quality improvement approaches; and further development of the mental health bench-marking toolkit.

Question reference: S4W-11565

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how the NHS is delivering an integrated response to patients with both mental and physical healthcare needs.

NHS Scotland ensures the delivery of integrated care and support in accordance with clinical guidelines and which meets the individually assessed needs of patients based on appropriate assessment and intervention tailored to achieve the best possible outcomes.

The recently published Mental Health Strategy highlights the poorer outcomes that people with co-occurring physical and mental health problems experience. We made a specific commitment to work with the Royal College of General Practitioners and other partners, to increase the number of people with long term conditions with co-occurring depression or anxiety who are receiving appropriate care and treatment for their mental illness.

We recognise that the recovery of people with more severe mental illnesses also benefits from access to services that support physical activity and social integration. A standardised assessment tool and a pathway for brief advice and brief intervention have been developed for use by primary care teams, to assess and improve levels of physical activity in the community. These tools and pathways are being integrated into existing Keep Well pathways.

Question reference: S4W-11560

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many applied psychologists there are per 100,000 (a) 0-19, (b) 20-64 and (c) 65-year-olds and over.

Question reference: S4O-01600

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 December 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of NFU Scotland and what issues were discussed.