JUST over a year ago, Shona Robison MSP, the country’s health secretary, observed - correctly, of course - that mental health was one of the most important public-health issues in Scotland, with around one person in three, in any given year, being affected by mental health concerns. She made it clear that the SNP government had prioritised the improvement of mental health services, with funding having been increased since 2006. She also cautioned, however, that demand was increasing, too.
No-one believes that every last mental-health issue can be addressed effectively by politicians and the NHS overnight. Nevertheless, there have been recent indications of the problems that still lie in store.
Waiting-list targets for specialist mental health care, The Herald reported earlier this month, are not being met for more than a quarter of adults and one in six youngsters. The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition called on the Scottish Government to increase investment in mental health services for children and young people.
There has, in general, been much criticism about lengthy waiting-times and rejected referrals, particularly in the child/adolescent service.
Now, Dr John Crichton, chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, has demanded “clear and reliable data” on where mental health patients are being treated. It is said that, because of bed shortages, many patients have to be sent to inpatient psychiatric beds in health-board areas other than their own.
Last December, Dr Daniel Martin, a Glasgow-based psychiatrist, complained that his Glasgow colleagues were routinely sending patients to hospitals far outwith their local area. Some had been despatched to Inverness, more than three hours’ away. Dr Martin also said that doctors had been hampered by a shortage of mental health beds for well over a year.
There has been a substantial decline in the number of psychiatric inpatient beds over the years, as the Scottish Government seeks to ensure that more patients are cared for and rehabilitated within their own community - an option that is, as Dr Crichton acknowledges, “better than being in a hospital bed”.
He is surely correct to say, however, that there needs to be diligent monitoring of the problems faced in relation to accessing particular beds. More effort has to be made to assess how many patients are having to travel much further afield than they - or their doctors - would like. Dr Crichton believes that the current system can be much improved upon. Being obliged to seek care outwith their own familiar communities cannot do anything to lessen the distress that mental health patients already feel. A new system is in order. It may go a small way towards addressing the concerns of many people who believe that mental health care still has some way to go before it achieves parity with physical health care.
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