Plea for mental health services in the Highlands to be high on the agenda for the next First Minister
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Putting mental health and suicide prevention in the Highlands high on the agenda of the next First Minister is essential.
That is the view of Emily Stokes, chief executive of Inverness-based mental health charity Mikeysline, after she raised the issue with SNP leadership hopefuls Kate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf.
Finance secretary Ms Forbes told around 200 people at the Inverness Courier Leadership Debate on Friday that she took a point about funding on board after it was stressed Mikeysline relied on generous donations of the local community – rather than money from the Scottish Government.
At the moment the Highlands has the highest suicide rate per capita in Scotland, and many of the organisations, including Mikeysline, are aiming to help prevent more.
Ms Stokes said: “A lot of the rural Highlands do not have enough support services and people should not lose out due to where they live.
“Funding would enable us to do more and reach more people. We cannot be reliant on local communities forever. We are seven years in and we need more substantial funding.”
When asked during the 90-minute debate what actions they would take to support the work of local mental health and suicide prevention support services in the Highlands, local leadership candidate Ms Forbes described Mikeysline’s work as revolutionary, adding: “The figures in the Highlands are horrendous – in the Highlands for men it is double the UK average in terms of suicide rates.
“We need to make sure that we are meeting people where they need help and they can seek that help in a confidential space.
“It is about helping the people on the ground, including Mikeysline, and there is a point around funding there that I take on board.”
Mr Yousaf said the focus would be on early intervention and investing intervention and investing in counsellors, adding: “We need to make sure that we are getting into our rural communities – we need to make sure that all of the breathing spaces are not just central belt focused or accessible to those who have good connectivity but accessible right across the country.”
Ms Regan also supported earlier intervention to avoid a situation reaching crisis point.
“We have seen many young people increasingly struggling with their mental health issues which is maybe to do with modern life and things like social media making people feel very pressured,” she said.
Afterwards, Ms Stokes said: “On a personal note, it was extremely positive to hear Kate Forbes’ views on the work of Mikeysline and the work we are doing, which reinforces the achievements of our staff and volunteers in their work on the textline, providing one-to-one support and all the work we have been doing in schools and the community over the past few years.
“It is essential, however, that we do get some commitment from the Scottish Government to ensure that mental health and suicide prevention is high on their agenda, as is supporting local services across Scotland and in particular for us in the Highlands and Moray, enabling local support services to provide the best service they can to local people.”
Ms Stokes added: “We save a lot of money in the system by supporting people in communities that don’t need to use NHS support as much.
“Third-sector organisations are crucial to supporting people in communities – but they need funding just as other health and social care services do.”
Ms Stokes described the opportunity of raising the issue with the leadership candidates as feeling “like a historic moment” and added: “It will be interesting to see who becomes First Minister and if mental health and suicide prevention have more priority.
“It needs a localised response and not one-size-fits-all for all of Scotland – each area has different needs and needs different responses.”
