'Sweeping changes' urged for Scotland's mental health services

Tommy Kelly suffered a heart attack after his anorexia went undiagnosed

Mental health organisations are demanding sweeping changes to meet a predicted increase in demand for services in Scotland.

Scotland's Mental Health Partnership (SMHP), a group of 17 organisations, called for funding increases to support mental health and wellbeing.

They said unmet needs for mental health services had been exacerbated by Covid.

The latest government figures show almost a third of Scots are reporting high levels of psychological stress.

Its second Scottish COVID-19 Mental Health Tracker Study also revealed that suicidal thinking had been reported by 13.3% of respondents compared to 9.6% in the initial report from October 2020.

A government spokesperson said it was investing £1.2bn in improving mental health services and urged anyone experiencing distress to access immediate help through the NHS 24 mental health hub.

'I gave up'

Two survivors of serious mental health episodes told BBC Scotland that early intervention was essential.

Tommy Kelly had a heart attack and was in a coma because of an eating disorder following the death of his mother.

"It really had to get to that stage for me to be understood - that [anorexia] was the problem I actually had," he said.

"My doctor basically turned me away and said I was suffering from grief, which was part of it, but I just gave up because I felt I wasn't treated properly and there wasn't that understanding there."

Mr Kelly, who now works with eating disorder charities and makes YouTube videos to help others, added: "We really need to be having support in a flexible person-centred approach which is free from stigma and discrimination , which actually meets the needs of the individual."

Angela McCrimmon said she need more mental health support because her illness was not understood in the early stages

Angela McCrimmon, 43, from Livingston, was detained in hospital under the mental health legislation after early signs of her bipolar disorder were not recognised.

While her recent experiences of mental health services have been positive, such as getting a care plan to see the same GP, she feels the early stages of her illness were ignored.

Being detained was a "turning point", she said.

"Before I'd kept quiet because when you do try and speak up you get put down, so I was determined I was going to start speaking up, and I've kept my promise," Angela said.

"Everyone has mental health and it's important to be able to pay attention to it before there's a problem.

"If people around me had a better understanding it would have meant the fact I was struggling could have been identified sooner. When you look back, there were a lot of red flags."

She added: "For me, if they had prevented the crisis rather than waited for it, it would have avoided so much agony for everyone. For years I needed someone to catch me so I wouldn't get to crisis. Where I would have otherwise have needed one service, I needed six instead.

"The longer it goes on for you, the more you can lose the belief in yourself and don't believe recovery is possible.

"The key point, though, was that I didn't have to be ill all the time, and that I'm not the illness."

'Ambitious' reforms

A SMHP spokesperson said it was seeking "sweeping changes" for the "post-Covid era"

Its manifesto "Promote, Prevent, Provide" calls for the next government to promote better mental health and wellbeing for the whole population, prevent mental ill-health in communities at highest risk, and provide an appropriate choice of support, care and treatment for people experiencing severe mental ill health.

Lee Knifton, SMHP chairman, called for mental health to be a key issue in the Holyrood election and urged the leaders of the five main political parties to commit to "ambitious" mental health reforms.

These would include better support for young people moving into adulthood and to end stigma by promoting good mental health and wellbeing for the whole population.

"Our mental health sector has the ability to become world-leading," he said.

"Our government must match this expertise with a commitment to investing and supporting an overhaul of the prevention, support and treatment of mental ill-health and adopt a mental health in all policies approach."