FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that unanswered calls for mental health support in Scotland are "not acceptable".
At First Minister's Questions today, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar urged the Government to do more on mental health as he raised a number of worrying figures.
Sarwar said that 24,947 calls to an NHS mental health crisis hub phone line had gone unanswered during the pandemic.
He also highlighted that in March 2020 there were 133 unanswered calls but in January of this year that number rose to 5452.
Scottish Labour received the figures from a freedom of information (FOI) request.
Sarwar also criticised waiting times in the mental health services for children and young people, saying 1,500 people have waited more than a year for help.
READ MORE: Mental Health Foundation Scotland calls for 'transformational' change
Sturgeon told Holyrood that these figures were "not acceptable" and praised NHS staff taking calls of this nature during the pandemic as doing an "outstanding job in very difficult circumstances".
The First Minister also highlighted work that is ongoing to respond to mental health problems including giving every secondary school access to counselling services, providing similar support for further and higher education and recruiting additional mental health nurses in the community.
Pointing out that despite the Goverment's shortfalls, there are "many more people getting access to services", Sturgeon also said that "whoever is in a position of authority" after May's Holyrood election must continue to make mental health support a priority.
In his final question at FMQs, Sarwar said: "It's actions, not promises that save people's lives. This issue didn’t start with Covid, but it has gotten worse as a consequence of it.
“What those people who made those 25,000 unanswered calls need is a Parliament focused on a recovery plan for our NHS that includes mental health services.
“After 14 years of this Government, after seven years as First Minister, does the First Minister ever wonder what Scotland could have achieved for those young people if we had focused on what had united us and not what divided us?”
Sturgeon agreed that actions, not promises change lives, adding: “I recognise the challenges we face on mental health but he didn’t outline a few weeks before an election a single positive solution.”
She continued: “I do agree very much with Anas Sarwar, it’s not just about words, it’s about actions and about commitment and that is what this Government demonstrates each and every single day.
“That will be the programme and the record we put before the people of Scotland in a few weeks’ time.”
READ MORE: Scottish Government called to give mental health services funding boost
Dr Linda Findlay, chair-elect at the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, said: “All health and social care staff including the teams at NHS24 have been working incredibly hard during the pandemic, but these latest figures are particularly concerning and show the strain our services are under.
“But even before the pandemic hit, mental health services were overstretched and underfunded. People should be getting the help and advice for their mental health that they so vitally need.
“We do welcome funding commitments made by the Scottish Government, but these statistics show that we need urgent steps taken to address staffing and resource gaps. We need to meet the mental health needs of all Scots, both now and as we recover from the pandemic.”
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