Cuts to services will devastate mental health provision

Lynda McEwan 

Psychiatrists and mental health organisations in Scotland have reacted with a mixture of disbelief and disappointment to the SNP – Green budget cuts to mental health services. 

A staggering £30 million is set to be cut in 2024/25 including to programmes such as the Mental Health Outcomes Framework and the Mental Health Transformation Programme. 

The Scottish government say they are committing to a 10% increase of NHS frontline spending for mental health by the end of this parliament, which if they were to achieve this would require an extra £180 million investment. But this is playing with figures as they are freezing and cutting funding for mental health services that are linked to NHS services such as in HSCP and in the third sector. 

In all of these areas and in education there are staff shortages as thousands are off sick or leaving often due to mental stress. 

Finance secretary Shona Robison has continually stated that she is being forced into making “tough decisions” which is capitalist politician speak for lacking the courage to stand up to Tory austerity. And when it comes to decisions, there are fewer tougher than having to turn away a patient in crisis due to lack of funding. 

Crisis is precisely what mental health in Scotland is in. Calls to mental health helplines from people suffering from psychosis and alcohol related mental disorders have surged to disturbing levels.

Young people having gone through the challenges of isolation and anxiety due to the pandemic are now facing long waiting lists to be seen by CAHMS who are struggling to catch up with referrals from as far back as 2018. 

The continuing cost of living crisis has also impacted mental health in Scotland alongside the precarious economic outlook, increase in wars, threat of environmental destruction and the rise of the far right. 

The situation has gotten so bad that Police Scotland say that they are having to pick up the slack of a failing mental health system. Every month they attend around 20,000 mental health incidents. 

In December last year police were called to a man in distress. They spent two hours unsuccessfully trying to get him help but stayed with him until they felt he was well enough to be left alone. Unfortunately an hour after leaving they learned he’d taken his own life. This is an incredibly sad indictment of where budget cuts leads to. 

Police Scotland, found to be systematically sexist and racist in a report last year, are definitely not the best placed to deal with these issues, particularly as women and refugees are more at risk of mental health problems.

The police themselves are also dealing with budget cuts, station closures, pay freezes, falling officer numbers and lack of training and have called for the Scottish government to commission a review of the whole system relating to mental health. 

17 organisations have formed a coalition to call on the Scottish government to urgently increase funding to mental health. 

The SNP – Greens could set needs based budgets across Scotland, providing the money these organisations desperately require. They could organise a mass campaign to fight for the funding Scotland needs from Westminster, standing up for once against the Tories and their rotten profit ridden system. The trade unions should also play an important role in fighting for workers mental health needs. 

In cities like Glasgow, fighting socialist led branches like Glasgow City Unison have a record of defending services. 

There is more than enough wealth in society to adequately fund the services to tackle head on the crisis of capitalist alienation that causes such seriously debilitating conditions.