The Scottish government has published an outline five year mental health and wellbeing strategy and says it wants to shape the detail by hearing the thoughts of anyone involved in delivering or using services, or who has been affected by poor mental health.

The consultation document says the strategy will run until 2027 and focus on 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 people with mental illness.

The publication comes at the midpoint of a 10 year mental health strategy published in 2017 and builds on the key themes of the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan released at the height of the pandemic in 2020, in response to the significant number of people whose emotional wellbeing was impacted by covid-19.

Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care, Kevin Stewart, says the pandemic focused attention on the support available – or not – to people who were struggling:

"We knew before covid that the right mental health support was not always available for everyone who needed it. We worked hard to improve this, although we know we still have a lot of work to do.

"This challenge now looks different as we recover from the pandemic, which has affected everyone in different ways and has had a more adverse impact on the mental health some people than others."

Mr Stewart says the strategy will focus on what needs to be done immediately as well as looking beyond the five years, addressing underlying reasons behind poor mental health such as poverty, inequalities, trauma, and poor housing.

The government says the ambition of the strategy is ‘to deliver better mental health and wellbeing for all’, with a focus on four pillars of supporting good mental health. Within the strategy, a ‘no wrong door’ approach to getting help is outlined, alongside making sure the response to people in distress is rapid, and provides safe, effective treatment and care for people living with mental illness.

Rather than presenting detailed plans to get views on them, the team behind the consultation have posed a series of open questions to gather people's thoughts based on their lived experience of difficulties with their own mental health. Moreover, they seek to gain an understanding of the services and support available to people and their loved ones, be it from the NHS, third sector or informal helpers.

There are also sections in the consultation seeking views on barriers to access, workforce, survivors of trauma and the particular needs of children and young people.

In his foreword to the consultation, Mr Stewart says that people's responses will help make sure the right things are included in the strategy and shape how mental health services are delivered under the new National Care Service. This will include making sure mental health support links with other services like justice, social work, and education.

The consultation document and details of how to respond can be found on the Scottish Government’s website. People are asked to respond by 9 September.

The final Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy will be published later in 2022. In the meantime, ministers will also publish a report on the current 2017 Mental Health Strategy gauging progress and what difference it has delivered to people’s lives.

Read more: ’Ground-breaking’ mental health support to go national; Embedding voices of experience into NCS plans; A psychiatric hospital "ahead of its time"

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