A new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy - consultation
Feedback updated 3 Jan 2024
We asked
We sought views on what the new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Scotland should look like. The consultation opened on 29th June and closed on 9th September.
You said
There were 495 responses to the consultation from a mix of individuals (54%) and organisations (46%). Some of the key points raised were as follows:
- A need for a stronger focus on prevention and early intervention.
- The importance of tackling poverty and inequality.
- Supporting person-centred and whole-family approaches.
- Placing mental health and wellbeing on an equal footing with physical health.
- A need for increased community-based support and services.
- Increased and longer-term funding for mental health and wellbeing services, including for the third sector.
- Growing the workforce – developing a skilled and diverse mental health and wellbeing workforce, and addressing talent attraction, recruitment, and retention challenges.
The majority of responses agreed with out proposed vision and definitions, and provided a range of opinions on what success for the Strategy might look like. A majority of responses also supported our proposed outcomes, although there was clear feedback that some of the draft outcomes needed to be more specific and measurable. We have clearly heard that respondents wanted to see fewer outcomes in the final Strategy.
Respondents also shared information on how they manage their own mental health and wellbeing. Many of the responses told us about some of the things that have a negative impact on the mental health and wellbeing of the respondents as individuals, or someone they know or support.
We did
An independent analysis of the consultation responses was undertaken and was published on 17 February 2023. We are using the results of said consultation to inform further engagement with our stakeholders, including people with lived experience of mental health and wellbeing and practitioners. This will be used to inform the drafting of the new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Delivery Plan that will be published in the Spring of 2023.
Published responses
View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish the response.
Overview
We want to hear your views on what a new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Scotland should look like. We have asked a series of questions, and your answers to these will help us write the final Strategy.
The Strategy will guide the work that the Government, and our partners, will do to improve mental health and wellbeing in Scotland. This will include an overall shared vision, a set of outcomes, and how we will achieve these to improve people’s mental health and wellbeing. It will also describe how we will measure the difference we’re making.
We want to make sure that the Strategy does the right things to improve mental health and wellbeing for people in Scotland. We also want your views on whether the draft overall vision, and our draft outcomes, are the right ones.
We want the Strategy to focus on every part of what mental health and wellbeing means. This covers a range of things, including:
- addressing the underlying reasons behind poor mental health;
- helping to create the conditions for people to thrive;
- challenging the stigma around mental health, and;
- providing specialist help and support for mental illness.
We also want the Strategy to guide how we provide support to everyone who has a role in improving and supporting people’s mental health and wellbeing.
This ranges from the specialist mental health workforce to those working in all health and social care settings, in communities, schools, police custody suites, and prisons. We also recognise the invaluable support of volunteers and unpaid carers.
The Strategy will mainly cover the next five years, until 2027. However, it will set out a much longer term vision and outcomes for the mental health and wellbeing of the population.
We will also publish delivery plans to set out the work we will do over the coming years. These will show how we will make progress towards our outcomes, and how we will measure that progress.
We have included definitions of what we mean by terms such as “mental health” and “mental wellbeing” later in the consultation.
We want the Strategy to be equality and human rights-based.
The views of people who have experienced mental health issues are especially important to us.
Read the consultation document
Read the easy read consultation document
More Information
More Information
We want to hear about people’s experiences of mental health and wellbeing, and any support they have received. However, we know that sometimes it can be difficult to talk or write about these experiences, whether they are your own or other people’s. You can respond to any questions in the consultation that you want to. There is no need to respond to them all.
Alongside the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, we are currently developing the Suicide Prevention Strategy and action plan which will go out for public consultation in July, and be published in September.
If you are affected by any of the issues covered in this document and need support, help is available. We have included links to some of those sources of support below.
Breathing Space / Phone 0800 838587
NHS24 / Phone 111
What happens next
We will publish an independent summary of all of the responses to show what people have said.
The final Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy will be published later in 2022.
We will also publish a report on the Mental Health Strategy (2017-27) to show the progress that has been made, and how it has made a difference to people’s lives.
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