- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 22 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in providing counselling support for children and young people as set out in its 2005 report, The Mental Health of Children and Young People: A Framework for Promotion, Prevention and Care.
Answer
Significant progress in implementing this part of the Framework by 2015 is being supported by the Scottish Government''s investment of £6.5 million over the next 3 years to increase the number of psychologists working in specialist CAMHS; and is complemented by an additional £2 million per year “ matched by NHS Boards “ to enhance intensive community mental health services for this age group.
In addition, statutory and voluntary partners are working to provide resources, support and advice to enable all of those working with children and young people - in all settings - to promote good mental health and wellbeing and provide counselling support. Examples of partnership activity which is helping to build the capacity of the whole childrens'' workforce include the Playfield Institute, set up by NHS Fife; and the HandsOnScotland toolkit, developed by Barnardo''s, HeadsUpScotland and others.
Monitoring progress in this area is a key part of the Scottish Government''s performance management of NHS Boards.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 22 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the results of its monitoring of whether national standards for crisis services have been implemented to ensure that the services provided meet local demand, as recommended in the Audit Scotland report, Overview of Mental Health Services.
Answer
Although the Audit Scotland report does not specifically recommend that the Scottish Government publish these results, we will be undertaking additional work in 2011 in assessing and disseminating information on Boards'' implementation of the National Standards.
Implementation of the National Standards is currently monitored and evaluated as part of the Scottish Government''s performance management of NHS Boards; and is complemented by the work of the Mental Health Collaborative in continuing to track the activity of Boards in reducing readmissions in line with the former readmissions HEAT target.
Ongoing work of the Mental Health Benchmarking Project includes action on developing the collection of data on the availability of crisis and out of hours services. This data will enable Boards and others to compare and measure service provision in this area.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 22 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what action has been taken to control exposure to, demand for and consumption of excessive quantities of high calorie foods and drinks as outlined in Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotland: A Route Map Towards Healthy Weight.
Answer
The Route Map is a long term strategy spanning 20 years. Our current priority is to develop an action plan and identify key milestones to support delivery of the Route Map. A report of progress will be published in 2013.
In the meantime, we are committed to improving the nation''s diet through work with a range of stakeholders. For example, with retailers through the Scottish Grocers'' Federation Healthy Living Programme, caterers through the Healthyliving Award, consumers through our ˜Take Life On'' campaign, third sector groups through Community Food and Health (Scotland) and with the education sector through our implementation of the Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) (Scotland) Act 2007.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 22 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what action has been taken to increase energy expenditure as outlined in Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotland: A Route Map Towards Healthy Weight.
Answer
The Route Map is a long term strategy spanning 20 years. Our current priority is to develop an action plan and identify key milestones to support delivery of the Route Map. A report of progress will be published in 2013.
In the meantime we are making progress in a number of areas to increase energy expenditure. For example, in June 2010 we published the first ever Cycling Action Plan for Scotland (CAPS), which outlines an overarching vision for a 10% modal share for cycling by 2020. It also sets out the Government''s commitments to deliver the 17 actions and outcomes in the document and to work in partnership with key delivery agencies in delivering the outcomes. We will continue working on projects that increase road safety for cyclists, identify opportunities to include active travel into planning guidance and develop a robust delivery mechanism for cycle training in primary schools across the country.
We are currently also working on a refresh of the National Transport Strategy which will be consulted on shortly. That refresh recognises the need to develop and promote the links between more active forms of travel and health generally.
We have also launched Active Nation which aims to encourage people of all ages and abilities to become more physically active in the run up to the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and beyond.
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- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 22 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all recommendations in the publication, Remember I’m Still Me, published jointly by the Mental Welfare Commission and the Care Commission have now been implemented.
Answer
Remember I''m Still Me''s findings and recommendations “ the latter aimed at the Scottish Government and other key partners - helped inform development of Scotland''s first National Dementia Strategy, published in June.
As part of implementing the Strategy over the next 3 years, we are working with partners to address the recommendations in Remember I''m Still Me.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 22 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive which NHS boards achieved the HEAT target to tackle overweight and obesity in children.
Answer
The target on child healthy weight interventions is not due for delivery until March 2011.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what successful outcomes have been achieved in treating the estimated 70% of prisoners identified as having a mental health problem.
Answer
I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:
The SPS does not record specific outcome measures on the individual treatment of prisoners with mental health problems. The SPS seeks to deliver against the National Offender Outcomes, of which Offender Outcome 1 relates to the mental health and wellbeing of prisoners.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 22 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been achieved to reduce the rate of increase in the proportion of children with a body mass index outwith a healthy range.
Answer
The National Performance Indicator for child healthy weight and progress so far can be found on the Scotland Performs web pages:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/scotPerforms/indicators/childrensBMI (the national indicator relates to children aged 2-15).
Progress is being made to reduce the rate of increase in the proportion of children with a body mass index outwith a healthy range with figures showing a drop from 1.7% per annum between 1998 and 2003 to 0.8% per annum between 2003 and 2008.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to ensure that people are given early diagnosis and treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea.
Answer
Clinicians in NHSScotland are expected to follow the recommendations in Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) Guideline 73 in relation to the diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnoea in adults.
NHS Boards are working to reduce waiting times for services such as sleep apnoea, which were previously excluded from waiting time standards, to ensure that they meet the 18 weeks referral to treatment target by the end of 2011.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive which NHS boards have achieved the HEAT target to lower the prescribing rate of antidepressants by March 2010.
Answer
Latest official statistics on the defined daily dose per capita for antidepressants, prescribed in Scotland that were dispensed by community pharmacists or dispensing doctors anywhere in the UK can be found on the ISDScotland website at:
www.isdscotland.org/isd/3671.html.
Information is presented by NHS board for financial years up to 2008-09. Provisional statistics for financial year 2009-10 are planned to be published on the
28 September 2010.
We do not anticipate that any NHS board will meet the target to level off the annual rate of increase of defined daily dose per capita of antidepressants which was due to be achieved by 31 March this year.
However, the HEAT target has driven a much better understanding of the issues that impact on anti-depressant prescribing across Scotland. As our understanding has improved, it has become clearer that we can not be sure that implementing evidence based prescribing behaviour will lead to a reduction in antidepressant usage. We have therefore reviewed the target and are committed to developing an access to psychological therapies target for inclusion in HEAT in 2011-12. We will continue to track antidepressant prescribing across Scotland to see what impact improving access to psychological therapies has on prescribing behaviour.
