PEOPLE who are experiencing mental health problems need more than crisis support, according to a group of MSPs.

Holyrood’s Cross Party Group on Mental Health has called on the Scottish Government to do more as part of its inquiry into access to treatment and support, both of which were lacking, it said.

The 78-member group’s report found there was emerging evidence of some positive outcomes in access to mental health treatment, and some new initiatives had been established in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Pre-existing programmes had also been expanded, but the group said psychological therapies and counselling were not readily accessible for people with mental health problems, and people lacked choice in the type of therapy they received.

The group also reported that children and young people continued to be left without support and was concerned that the scale of investment in new services may not meet demand.

They also found people with mental health problems felt there was a lack of support for them to stay well, with most commitments on accessing adult services in the Mental Health Strategy focusing on crisis support or initial contact with services.

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Patricia Rodger, who lives with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, said: “When faced with significant life events I had no resilience to draw on - so each time I fell apart and I had to find ways to put myself back together because, without a diagnosis, there was no appropriate and effective support available to me.

“Then when I was diagnosed with PTSD I could only access a limited number of sessions through the NHS with a trainee psychologist.

“This helped but I felt I had only begun to understand the issues when the sessions came to an end. Unless you have a significant mental health crisis, there is no alternative unless you can afford to pay for private therapy, I just didn’t have the money to pay for ongoing support.

“At the age of 62 I have finally been able to access some support that is making a significant difference. I now work as a community collective advocacy development worker with AdvoCard and use my personal lived experience to support others.”

Ele Davidson, collective advocacy development worker at CAPS Independent Advocacy, said: “When members of Lothian Voices, which is supported by CAPS, gave feedback to the Cross-Party Group, they were clear that they have not seen improvements in their day-to-day access to mental health services and that access has worsened as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Although we’ve seen digital and telephone access expanded, this hasn’t been a positive for everyone.

“The group pointed out that the strategy felt limited in it’s options for ‘access to services’ and that it lacked vision when including the third sector in ‘joined up services’.

“They were also concerned that the strategy seemed to concentrate heavily on children and young people and there was not a great deal of discussion for adults who are currently living with mental health issues.”

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There was support for the new Mental Health Assessment Centres developed as part of the response to coronavirus and the greater use of the digital service Near Me, and the group wants to see this type of service embedded into mental health support in the longer term.

However, technology can cause problems: the group heard about appointments being cut short because data allowances ran out, and about people lacking privacy in their home to talk about their mental health.

The group is urging that people be given a choice in how they receive support; digital cannot be the default, and the report calls for people with mental health problems to receive targeted support from the Scotland Programme, which provide free digital resources, data and skills training.

It also called for an inclusive approach to communication in mental health services, so that people who are deaf or have other communication issues can receive support.