Chamber and committees

Although the Executive has notreceived any representations regarding support for this project, we welcome proposalssuch as this which are designed to increase visitor numbers to Scotland andenhance the visitor experience while here. There are a number of organisations withan interest in tourism heritage trails, including the National Trust for Scotland, HistoricScotland and VisitScotland’s Challenge Fund.

To date, the Scottish Executivehas not received any representations regarding this.

Referral option informationis not available centrally. Treatment options are a matter for clinicians inconsultation with all relevant professionals and the individual. Care options,including psychological interventions, cognitive behaviour therapy andmedication will be considered as part of a care package designed to offer thebest outcomes for the individual.

Referral option informationis not available centrally. Treatment options are a matter for Clinicians inconsultation with all relevant professionals and the individual. Care options,including psychological interventions, cognitive behaviour therapy andmedication will be considered as part of a care package designed to offer thebest outcomes for the individual.

An external evaluation of theDoing Well initiative has been commissioned and will report over the summer. Theoutcomes will inform consideration of wider practical applications of the successesof the initiative, attention to which is continued through commitments madewithin Delivering for Health.

No specific funding is beingset aside to tackle depression. It is for each NHS board, working with theirpartners, to meet the health care needs of their area from the funds availableto them, taking account of national and local priorities.

NHS boards have been given ageneral allocation of £6.4 billion for 2006-07, an average increase 7.25% onlast year and have been notified of an average indicative increase of 6% for2007-08.

The Doing Well By PeopleWith Depression Programme has commissioned an external evaluation which is dueto report in June this year. The evaluation has been conducted to provide bothquantitative and qualitative information and to do this will report on thefollowing; impact of interventions undertaken by pilot sites in terms ofservice user experience and satisfaction, the effective use of resources includingaccess and referral times, the profile of patients using the service andclinical outcomes following interventions.

All NHS boards were invitedto submit bids for projects under the Doing Well By People With Depression Programmein 2003. Of the then 15 health boards, a total of 11 sites applied for fundingof which seven were successful. The seven sites to go forward were, NHS Argylland Clyde, NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHSGrampian, NHS Greater Glasgow and NHS Lanarkshire. The unsuccessful bids were;NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Lothian and NHS Shetland.

A further round of biddingfor monies for the financial year 2005-06 was undertaken and a further threesites joined the programme. These are NHS Highland, NHS Fife and NHS Lothian.

The bidding process on eachoccasion was overseen by the programme Advisory Board and decisions were takenagainst defined criteria.

The Chief Scientist Office(CSO), within the Scottish Executive Health Department, has responsibility forencouraging and supporting research into health and health care needs in Scotland. Itsupports research projects of a sufficiently high standard initiated by the research community in Scotland.This role is well known and advertised throughout the health care and academiccommunity.

CSO is currently funding astudy of anti-depressant prescribing in primary care, which will consider thefactors influencing doctors’ prescribing decisions including the socio-economiccircumstances of patients. The study, which is being conducted by the University of Glasgow, is due to be completed in February 2007. Thefindings of this study are likely to be available in early summer 2007. Anexecutive summary of the findings will be available on CSO’s website at www.show.scot.nhs.uk/csoat that time.

The external evaluation of the Doing Well By People with Depression programme will report in June 2006 andwill provide a solid information base on which to make decisions on therecommended initiatives for roll-out.

The programme has aimed toincrease access to treatment for mild to moderate depression in primary careand also provide increased choice of treatments for patients. The programme didnot set targets for the reduction in the prescribing of anti depressant medication.The evaluation will comment on the impact of providing guided self helpservices on increasing access and choice to a range of treatments and will drawout any learning about anti depressant prescribing rates, along with otherissues if this is available through the data gathered.

The roll out of the learningfrom Doing Well By People with Depression will focus on sharing the evidencebase to support service development, ensuring that effective approaches areincorporated into the NHS QIS Integrated Care Pathway for depression and alsosupporting service change as part of the Delivering For Health , Mental HealthDelivery Plan.