Cole-Hamilton responds to Auditor General mental health report

Responding to the Auditor General’s embargoed report on adult mental health services, which describes access to those services as “slow and complicated,” especially for “ethnic minority groups, people living in rural areas and those in poverty,” and which indicates that the current system “causes complications and delays in developing care focussed on the needs of individuals,” Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:    

“This report lays bare the Scottish Government’s total failure to get to grips with mental health. No meaningful progress is being made in tackling inequalities around access to vital services.

“The long shadow of lockdown, the pressures of the cost of living and the SNP’s reckless decision to cut £50m from the mental health budget have brought the system to its knees.

“To repair the crisis, Scottish Liberal Democrats would install more counsellors in schools, ramp up training to offer every workplace the benefit of a mental health first aider and rollout more mental health professionals near to you in GP surgeries and A&E departments.”