Highland MSPs call for urgent action on mental health services as 161 more young people sought treatment from NHS Highland in the first three months of the year
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Two Highland MSPs have voiced their concerns about mental health treatment for young people saying it has “never been more important.”
Conservative MSP Donald Cameron and SNP MSP Emma Roddick both spoke out separately amid a rising child and mental health services backlog.
Mr Cameron was speaking on the back of new statistics from Public Health Scotland indicating 161 young people in the NHS Highland area sought treatment between January and March 2021 alone.
“Sadly, the pandemic and lockdown restrictions have taken a toll on the mental wellbeing of many young people across the country including here in the Highlands and Islands,” he said.
“We should remember that the consequences of this can be long-lasting. As the report notes, the majority of adult mental health problems begin in childhood with 50 per cent of mental health problems established by age 14.
“This is a reason why my party will continue to push for 10 per cent of the health budget in Scotland to be spent directly on tackling mental health issues.
“Although NHS Highland’s waiting time track record is better than the Scottish average, with 75.2 per cent people seen within 18 weeks, that is still well below the Scottish Government’s own target of at least 90 per cent of patients being seen within that time frame.
“It has never been more important to ensure that young people receive the help they need, when they need it.”
While Ms Roddick used her first speech to drive home how important access to mental health service is, warning the situation in the north is a “crisis” that cannot be ignored.
She said: “I strongly believe that we need to get real about the things which are making people ill in the Highlands and Islands: lack of transport, lack of affordable housing and jobs, and lack of the right mental health services in the right places.
“This is an issue across Scotland, but the three areas with the highest suicide rates in the country are in the Highlands and Islands.
“We can use lines about Orkney and Inverness being the happiest places in the UK to brag to bring in tourists, but that outlook is of no comfort to the people looking lonely out their window at the scenery, considering whether or how to take their own life.
"As we recover from one pandemic, we underestimate the magnitude of the other one at our own risk.”
