Scottish Election 20201: Mental health services should be transformed to provide an A&E-style service – Willie Rennie

On Friday morning I found myself taking a trip to the beach. In Broughty Ferry, I was meeting with mental health activist Ben Lawrie for a run.

Ben is one of our party’s brightest young stars and a tireless campaigner on mental health issues.

Shivering on the beach, Ben and I set out our party’s plans to fully utilise mental health counsellors in our national effort to tackle the mountain of mental health cases.

We need to double the number of mental health counsellors in training, offering financial support for more students taking up counselling courses and integrating the profession into NHS workforce planning.

As an MSP, week in, week out I seek to help people in need; maybe they’re out of work, maybe they’re waiting on an operation. I endeavour to help people to find a home or get the physical treatment they need but one of the things that stays with me is how often the people I help are not just dealing with physical or financial challenges, but the burden that these conditions impose on their mental health too.

For too long, vulnerable people have been subjected to harrowing long waits for mental health treatment. Official statistics from Public Health Scotland show a record 1,892 children and 5,452 adults waiting more than a year for mental health treatment. And the truth is that as waits get longer, problems grow bigger. Rather than early intervention and support, people find themselves turning to police officers, A&E departments and crisis support.

If your son or daughter were to break their arm, you’d expect them to be seen that same day. But if they were to find themselves struggling with their mental health, they would join the back of one of the longest queues in the NHS.

Reshaping post-pandemic Scotland

Long waiting times for mental health treatment can turn a problem into a crisis (Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)

This was true before the pandemic but the situation is even worse now. It is time to recognise that there is no health without mental health.

Last month, in one of the last parliamentary debates before the last session ended, my party used a Holyrood debate to declare that there is a mental health crisis in Scotland.

And because I want to put my money where my mouth is, in negotiations with the Scottish government, the Scottish Liberal Democrats secured a £120-million increase in the budget for mental health.

Now, with a new parliament around the corner, I want to go further.

Every election gives the chance to the voters to choose the path their nation will take for the next five years. However this time it will give them the choice about how to reshape our post-pandemic Scotland. I want to see a step change in how this nation deals with mental health.

Real change starts with mental health taken as seriously as physical health by the Scottish government. This can only be achieved if we end the long waits for diagnosis and treatment and we provide more services close to where people live. Real change starts from people having local, direct access to mental health treatment as they already do with physical health treatment.

No ‘wrong door’ for treatment

Over the past week, I have been setting out proposals to boost access to mental health. I have called for doubling the number of specialists and abolishing so-called ‘rejected referrals’ by integrating child and adolescent mental health services into a new wider system of multi-disciplinary support with safety nets and ladders so that families are never sent back to the start of the process.

There should be no "wrong door" for mental health services. Mental health should be treated like physical health, and problems should be treated in the same way. If you are physically hurting, you can walk in to your GP and get your issue sorted, you should be able to access walk-in services at mental health emergency centres, just like A&E. Nobody should be turned away or locked out.

For a decade, I have been a passionate champion of Scotland’s mental health, and I intend to continue championing it in the next parliament. I've lost count of the number of times families have told me of their struggles to get help. Every time it is heartbreaking. I have always said that early intervention can avoid a problem that starts small becoming a crisis.

For a decade as Scotland’s mental health has taken a turn for the worse, the Scottish Nationalists have put their fingers in their ears.

While I was running along the beach in Broughty Ferry, Nicola Sturgeon was doing what she knows best: agitating over independence.

A blind eye to people’s needs

So much energy has been expended on constitutional arguments but whether you are leave or remain, nationalist or unionist or somewhere in between, you have to admit that the colour of our flag or the name of our country will not help a single soul access mental health services faster.

If only the energy that has been expended on the constitution could be focused on the issues that matter most as Scotland moves out of the pandemic.

Rather than a nationalist government that has repeatedly turned a blind eye to the needs of people, to their sufferings and struggles to get an appointment in a short period of time, people have a chance on May 6 to choose a government that will put mental health issues first.

It’s time to decide how we will bounce back from the pandemic. As the sun crept over the walls of the castle at Broughty Ferry, I found myself more determined than ever.

This is a chance for a fresh start. Let’s put the mental health recovery first and make sure that no cry for help goes ignored.

Willie Rennie is leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and a Scottish Parliament candidate for North East Fife

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