Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-26181.

There are over 900 mental health officers working in Scottish local authorities, an increase of 300 since 1997. In addition, approximately 75 social workers are presently undertaking training to become mental health officers.The Adult with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 and the forthcoming mental health legislation introduce a number of new statutory duties for mental health officers. In anticipation of this, the Social Work Services Inspectorate is undertaking a survey of local authority mental health officer service structures and activities to assess how best to meet these new demands. Existing training takes different forms. Basic mental health officer training courses are approved by the Scottish Social Services Council and are run by five local authority fora on a yearly basis. To assist local authorities in carrying out their duties under the Adults with Incapacity Act, the Social Work Services Inspectorate recently produced 1,800 training packs of specific relevance to mental health officers and backed this up with four national seminars for those who will be delivering the training locally to become familiar with the material.

The latest available information on the number of Community Psychiatric Nurses (CPNs) can be found on ISD's online publication Workforce Statistics, which can be accessed from the following link:http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/isd/NHSiS_resource/Workforce/workforce_statistics.htm.The whole time equivalent and headcount of CPNs by NHS board can be found in Tables E3 and E4 respectively.The number of hours worked per week is not available centrally.

As our policy statement Renewing Mental Health Law recognised, comprehensive training for all professions who operate mental health law will be a crucial part of the preparation for the introduction of the proposed new legislation. We are currently initiating discussions with services and professional bodies regarding the development of an appropriate training programme.

As our policy statement Renewing Mental Health Law made clear, we will produce a Code of Practice for the proposed new legislation. Its purpose will be to promote the effective operation of all parts of the legislation, including those which provide rights and protections to service users, carers and staff.

The Executive's assessment of the financial implications of the proposed new mental health legislation will be set out in the Financial Memorandum, which will accompany the bill, and is being taken into account in the current Spending Review, which will determine NHS budgets for 2003-04 to 2005-06. The outcome of the Spending Review will be announced in September 2002.

Each person has their needs assessed prior to discharge. The single shared assessment process, which will be in place for all care groups by April 2003, enhances the joint approach to providing support in the community, with appropriate health and/or social care put in place to meet individual needs and provided by members of the relevant Primary Health Care Team or local authority social work department. A key recommendation of the Joint Future Group was that joint discharge/rapid response teams should be put in place in each local authority area. These teams consist of both health and social care professionals and enhance the care available to those discharged from hospital.

Deaths in Scotland are coded using the Tenth Revision of the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases (ICD10). In 2000, some 2,300 deaths were coded to the "Mental and Behavioural Disorders" chapter of ICD10. The largest category, almost 1,400 deaths, was "Unspecified dementia".

Information from a sample of general practices, selected as representative of Scotland as a whole, provides national estimates of patients seen by GPs. Using information from this national sample, the following table shows the estimated number of patients seen by a GP and recorded with an eating disorder diagnosis during the year specified, for Scotland. A health board breakdown is not available. Note that, in some cases, the same patient may be recorded in more than one year. Also note that, because the information is derived from a sample, caution is advised in interpreting trends across years.Estimated Number of Patients, with an Eating Disorder Diagnosis, seen by GPs in Scotland, 1999-2001¹, by Age Group and by Gender

	1999 2	2000 3	2001 4
Total	3,400	3,850	3,750
by Age Group
0-14 years	775	725	525
15-24 years	1,025	1,200	1,150
25-44 years	1,300	1,575	1,450
45-64 years	175	175	275
65 and over	125	175	350
by Gender
Males	650	450	450
Females	2,750	3,400	3,300

Source: Continuous Morbidity Recording (CMR), ISD Scotland.Notes:1. Patients seen more than once in the same year will only be counted once for that year. Patients could be counted once in each different year.2. Based on 51 practices, population 288,433, January 1999 to December 1999.3. Based on 55 practices, population 348,257, January 2000 to December 2000.4. Based on 60 practices, population 370,605, January 2001 to December 2001.

National information on NHS beds is primarily held at Consultant Specialty level, and does not provide the detail requested.