Mentally ill face four-year wait for treatment

Published on Saturday 25 October 2008 19:28

MENTAL health patients are being forced to wait more than four and a half years to see a psychologist, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

The extraordinary NHS waiting time, which puts patients and others at risk, has horrified mental health charities.

Hundreds of patients with conditions such as stress and depression are languishing on waiting lists. The worst area was the Easter Ross district of the Highlands, where the longest wait was four years seven months and an average wait was more than two years.

The situation was not much better in the capital of the Highlands, with more than 200 patients in Inverness on a list with a longest wait of almost three and a half years. The average wait for one Inverness list was one and a half years.

Figures released by the Scottish Government last year showed the highest rate of suicide for men was in the Western Isles, at 45.3 deaths per 100,000 people. This was followed by Highlands, with 44 per 100,000, and Glasgow at 43.6. Scotland's overall suicide rate, 838 people last year, is higher than in other parts of the UK.

Waits of more than three years were recorded in Mid Ross and Skye and Lochalsh. Caithness and Sutherland saw waiting times of over a year. Three-year waits for cognitive behaviour therapy – a short term psychological treatment – were found in Badenoch and Strathspey.

The shocking figures were uncovered in a NHS Highland response to a Freedom of Information request by Conservative health spokesperson Mary Scanlon. "These shocking figures show that mental health is not a priority for the Scottish Government and is still the Cinderella service that it always has been," she said.

"These waiting times mean that many people are endangering themselves and are also potentially being a danger to others. The longer people have to wait brings greater problems. It makes people feel less valued and they get more depressed. It becomes a downward spiral."

Long waits are not confined to the Highlands. A survey by Scotland on Sunday found that the maximum wait in NHS Lanarkshire was almost one year; 40 weeks was the longest wait for NHS Borders; and at NHS Ayrshire and Arran there was a nine-month wait. The waiting-time revelations have led to more pressure being exerted on the Government to include mental health services in their 18-week waiting time target, an issue under consideration by ministers.

Charlie McMillan, director of research, influence and change of the Scottish Association for Mental Health, said: "It is utterly outrageous that people with mental health problems in the Highlands have waited four and half years to see a psychologist. Following lobbying by SAMH and others in June this year, the Scottish Government made a commitment to bring mental health within the 18-weeks referral to treatment target for NHS Scotland. It is unacceptable that at present mental health is excluded. Until this commitment is upheld, the one in four people in Scotland with a mental health problem will continue to have their human rights ignored by their own Government".

Heidi Tweedie, of Highland Users' Group, a charity helping those with mental health problems, said: "When people require support and services, they require it urgently to prevent them from getting into a crisis situation. Four years is not acceptable. It is a long, long time to wait for someone in a crisis."

A spokeswoman for NHS Highland said the longest times referred to a small number of patients and times had been cut since the information had been compiled. She added that patients with urgent needs were fast-tracked.

Dr Ken Proctor, NHS Highland's associate medical director, said a major programme to improve mental health services was having an effect. "We are already beginning to see a difference with waiting times coming down and we have recruited three additional psychologists in recent weeks."

A Scottish Government spokesman said "initial consideration will be concluded shortly" on bringing mental health services into the 18-week target. "Most cases for urgent treatment are dealt with within the 18-week referral to treatment time," he said.