Mental health partnership manifesto calls for urgent action

A partnership of seventeen leading organisations is calling for urgent action in its Scottish election manifesto to prioritise addressing Scotland’s mental health emergency. 

Scotland’s Mental Health Partnership has unveiled its manifesto, ‘Scotland’s Mental Health: It’s Time for Action’, ahead of the Scottish election next May.

The manifesto demands that the next Scottish Government take bold and decisive action to address the current crisis and to transform the country’s mental health in the longer term. 

With mental health poorer than it was before the Covid pandemic, and stigma and discrimination still prevalent within society, mental health services are struggling to cope with an unprecedented increase in demand. With no corresponding increase in funding or resource, and a burnt-out workforce, this is collectively creating a spike in waiting lists for support and treatment. 

What does the manifesto call for?

The manifesto is built around the Partnership’s framework of the 3Ps – Promote, Prevent and Provide – to ensure that there are commitments to increase resources for early intervention and prevention; a choice of support, care and treatment in the right place and at the right time for all; and an ambitious public health programme to improve mental health literacy that will tackle stigma and discrimination. 

The Partnership states that ‘urgent action’ can be met with a substantial increase in investment to achieve better outcomes for Scotland, by exploring sustainable, multi-year funding for the third sector, addressing the mortality gap, expanding and retaining the mental health workforce, and shifting the balance of care back to the community. 

It also believes that the next Government must include a dedicated Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing to lead on transforming mental health in Scotland. With a Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy that has seen little progress– based around the 3Ps – it needs to be strengthened with coordinated approaches delivered across the country to implement national strategic priorities at a local level, and a ‘mental health in all policies’ approach. 

Gordon Johnson, policy lead for Scotland’s Mental Health Partnership, said: “There must be immediate and decisive action from the next Government. The time for talking and planning has passed. We are now in a mental health emergency, and we need bold and ambitious measures that will address this crisis. 

“We are far away from success. A great deal of work is required to tackle the mental health emergency in Scotland. This manifesto of coherent and connected proposals will enable significant progress to be made. 

“The focus for the next Government needs to be achieving radical change that will lead to sustainable support and services that can ultimately deliver better long-term mental health outcomes for Scotland’s people. 

“We look forward to working in partnership with that Government to implement these proposals.” 

Interested? Want to learn more?

You can find further details at Scotland Mental Health Partnership