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The ALLIANCE welcomes release of new Mental Health Standards for Scotland

  • Area of Work: Policy and Research
  • Type: News Item
  • Published: 29th September 2023
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Scottish Government publishes Mental Health Quality Standards.

As part of its broader Mental Health Strategy to 2027, the Scottish Government has released new Mental Health Quality Standards to ensure improvement in experiences of adult secondary mental health care, at a national level.

During the development and consultation stages of these new Standards, over the past two years, the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) and VOX Scotland have conducted research into the lived experience of mental health services in Scotland, to ensure that the voice of people with lived experience, their families and/or unpaid carers are centred within Standards development.

We are pleased to see key recommendations from our report, ‘Shaping New Mental Health Standards – A lived experience perspective’, included within the published Standards. This includes clear guidelines on what people should expect when accessing and moving between services, a new framework to support people to receive the right care at the right time, as well as commitments to establish clear channels for feedback and accountability within the system.

We hope that these new frameworks will remove complexity and improve consistency within the system, place a greater focus on preventative care, and support effective self management to help people remain well, rather than just supporting people at times of crisis.

While we welcome the Scottish Government’s engagement with the voices of lived experience, we must ensure that the priorities of people who use these services remain connected to service development and policy, if people are to feel that they are no longer alone in managing their mental health.

Irene Oldfather, Director of Strategic Partnerships, External Affairs and Outreach at the ALLIANCE, said:

“The ALLIANCE has been working with our partners at VOX Scotland over the last two years to ensure that the experiences of those with mental health issues across Scotland have informed these Standards. Our thanks to our members and to all of those who gave their time to the engagement so that others will benefit going forward. We must now make implementation a priority.”

Gordon Johnston, Chair of VOX (Voices of Experience) Scotland said: “Our thanks go to the many people across Scotland who engaged with our consultation work and helped to shape the final Standards. We are now looking forward to the implementation of the Standards and hope that we will see real improvements in mental health services as a result.

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