The Scottish Government has announced a new
Mental Health Strategy for Scotland, which, for the next four
years, will help shape the way Scotland approaches mental health.
The Government has asked the public, charities and medical
professionals to tell them what a new Mental Health Strategy should
set out to change and how it should do it.
Read our
briefing with Barnardo's on the draft strategy and
download our publication, The Foundation Stone, with our ten
steps towards a strategy for Scotland's mental health.
If the new Mental Health Strategy is to be effective, it must be
based on the real experiences of real people. We have carried out a
series of web surveys and focus groups across the country to gather
people's views and we have worked with Holyrood Magazine to host a
special conference on the new strategy.
Mental Health: The Foundation Stone
SAMH believes that good mental health is the foundation stone of
Scotland. Too often, mental health has been seen as an NHS issue -
but it's about so much more than that. Mental health is at the core
of Scotland's wellbeing.
Mental health, through self-esteem and resilience, is at the
core of Scotland's wellbeing. Without good mental health,
Government strategies on education, employment, criminal justice
and poverty just cannot succeed. Mental health is truly the
foundation stone of a better Scotland.
SAMH has produced ten steps forward for the new mental
health strategy and we need your help to put these recommendations
to the Scottish Government.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
One in four people in Scotland will experience a mental health
problem at some point. This means that all of us will be affected
by mental health, whether it's our own or the mental health of
someone close to us.
So we want
to hear about your experiences and ideas about mental health in
day to day life, whether it relates to your mental health at work,
or at school, college or university. Maybe you want to tell us
about mental health and housing, or your experience of mental
health in another aspect of your life.
There are lots of ways to share your experiences:
TWITTER
You can follow us on our brand new Twitter @SAMHtweets and use it
to tell us what you want from the strategy.
EMAIL
You can email us at policy@samh.org.uk
WRITE TO YOUR MSP
If you have a specific issues you want to raise, you can write
to your MSP. We have made it easy for you to contact your MSP
about the new Mental Health Strategy. Simply go to our Lobbying
Letter, choose your political constituency, and change the
letter to say what you want. Remember: it's your MSP's job to
represent your views in Parliament. You can find out your MSP
constituency at Aboutmyvote.com.
READ THE FOUNDATION
STONE
Get your copy of The Foundation Stone: A Strategy for Scotland's
Mental Health, which explains to politicians what can be done
to improve Scotland's mental health in the future.
A MESSAGE FROM OUR CHIEF
EXECUTIVE
SAMH Chief Executive Billy Watson explains why Scotland
needs a new Government-wide strategy on mental health.
