Mental Health

As an amendment to motion S4M-11975 in the name of Jamie Hepburn (Mental Health), leave out from "welcomes" to end and insert "notes that, since 2009, there have been 883 fewer staffed mental health beds and that Scotland’s hospitals have lost 64 specialist mental health nurses; further notes that targets for mental health treatment times are being missed; is concerned that hundreds of young people face waits of over six months to begin child and adolescent mental health service treatment and that treatment is being carried out in adult wards, which are unsuitable for children’s needs; believes the number of mental health officers (MHO) to be inadequate as highlighted by the 5% fall in MHO consents for emergency detention in hospital; recognises that nine out of 10 people who experience mental health problems have experienced stigma and discrimination; believes that there is a real opportunity to change the way that mental health is seen and treated in 2015 with a revised mental health strategy, and calls on the Scottish Government to act now and follow the lead of the UK Government and set out in legislation that mental health and physical health deserve equal recognition."