This week I urged Scottish Ministers to keep their pledge to increase NHS Boards spending on Child and Adolescent Mental Health services to 1% of their frontline budgets.
In a Parliament Debate this week I said that with less than a year to go only one NHS Board in Scotland has achieved this target. I highlighted that NHS Highland’s spending has only reached 0.37%, less than half the expected amount. Minister Tom Arthur informed me in Parliament that he intends to meet with NHS Highland and all other Boards shortly to hear how they plan to meet this target.
I believe it is no secret that if you leave mental illness untreated in childhood it inevitably leads to mental illness in adulthood and with much poorer outcomes. Clearly there is a connection between the numbers of staff available to provide treatment and the length of time children spend waiting and getting worse whilst doing so. It is unfair on staff and families to leave the services with so much less than they need to provide the level of care everyone wants to see and that would make a positive difference to family’s lives.
The children of Scotland and their parents deserve better, it is highly unlikely that this promise will be kept and that is not only deeply disappointing but harmful to thousands of children who could have benefitted from the care they have been denied for years.