Uticopa Blog

For men with mental health issues, is life any easier in Scotland?  Is NHS provision better in the north than in England and Wales?  And what about costs and waiting times?

I thought I'd better find out.

However, before you get your hopes up too much, it seems that information gathered by a spending watchdog has highlighted a mixed picture on the provision of mental health services in Scotland.

In one area - NHS Highland - waiting times are among the longest in Scotland. Audit Scotland, the public spending watchdog, found waits of between 58 and 77 weeks for psychological therapies in two areas covered by the board. However, NHS Highland's spending on mental health services ranks with the highest in the country. Its expenditure of more than £150 per head is higher than in Grampian, Lothian, Fife, Forth Valley and Lanarkshire. It is also among the highest spenders on adults with mental health needs in Scotland per head of population.

The Highlands board is about average for numbers of staff working in child and adolescent mental health services. However, it has the lowest number of personnel working in mental health psychology services as a whole. I checked out whether the situation was any better for Scottish youngsters.

However, I found that waiting times for services for youngsters was also a problem, according to Audit Scotland. In July 2008, statistics showed 40% in NHS Highland were waiting more than eight weeks for a first assessment and some had been waiting for outpatient appointments for more than a year.

And what about staffing levels?

You've guessed it: the board was also shown to be struggling to recruit people to some posts. In September 2008, Highland had vacancies for consultants in old age psychiatry which had not been filled since 2004.

Meanwhile, NHS Highland also did not provide details on community mental health contacts with patients.

Choose Life Highland

Unfortunately, those beautiful postcards of calm, still lochs and peaceful fishermen don't tell the whole story. It seems that it's not just a monster lurking beneath the waves in Loch Ness. Mental illness is also raising its ugly head above the waterline in the Highlands and Islands.

But help is at last at hand. Last year a new website - believed to be the first of its kind in the world - was launched in an effort to prevent suicides in the Highlands. It's called ‘Chooselife Highland' and it's hoped it will provide support to people - particularly men - who feel uncomfortable asking for help in a face-to-face situation.

Last summer, a specialised charity ‘Charity Men's Health Highland' (MHH) held a conference looking at the health issues affecting groups of men reluctant to seek medical help. MHH discovered that many men felt they were ‘too macho' to admit to needing help and therefore did not need to see a doctor. The conference moved on to discussions on ways to help men who feel that they are sidelined because they are in prison, are gay, have a mental health problem, are homeless or are a member of an ethnic minority.

Sticking plasters

What all of the above indicates is that NHS Scotland services for mental health sufferers are no different from those further south.

When will Gordon Brown (a Scotsman himself) learn that - like Tony Blair before him - it's no good throwing money at a system that just can't cope any more.  Healthcare (and mental health care seems to be constantly at the bottom of the ‘importance' league) is too important to treat in such a cavalier fashion. 

Stop putting ‘sticking plasters' on the problem.  Take a look at the world-class health care systems in France and Germany and use them as a model.

A radical overhaul to the NHS is needed - and soon!