Mental Health Strategy. This strategy outlines Scotland's approach to improving mental health and well-being, including prevention, early intervention, and treatment. The Care and Wellbeing Portfolio is the overall strategic reform policy and delivery framework within Health and Social Care. It brings oversight and coherence to the major health and care reform programmes designed to improve population health, address health inequalities and improve health and care system sustainability. Scotland continues to face significant population health challenges: stalling (and in some groups falling) healthy life expectancy, and widening levels of inequality, exacerbated by COVID-19. In addition, the pandemic has further increased demand on health and care services. Improving health requires improved system sustainability and, even more critically, improved outcomes in the wider factors that create health – good early years; learning, jobs; income; and supportive communities. The Portfolio provides an opportunity to take a systematic approach to planning and delivering care and wellbeing. Portfolio objectives focus on coherence, sustainability and improved outcomes both within health and care, and across government, with the overall goal of improving population health and reducing health inequalities. Furthermore, the recent Health Foundation report ‘Leave no one behind’i clearly highlights that despite undoubted policy ambition, effective implementation has fallen short with inequalities persisting and growing across Scotland. Most importantly, the report recognises that change requires practical, up and downstream collaboration and action across all parts of the delivery system and from the public. More than ever this emphasises the need for collective action. Public Health Scotland context ‘A Scotland where everybody thrives’ is the overarching ambition of Public Health Scotland’s Strategic Plan 2022–2025, which focuses on increasing healthy life expectancy and reducing health inequalities. The Strategic Plan sets out a clear commitment to collaborative working in recognition that no one organisation or profession can address Scotland’s public health challenge. Public Health Scotland has a leadership role in, and contributes to, all of Scotland’s public health priorities. Public Health Scotland will focus on three areas: i xxxxx://xxx.xxxxxx.xxx.xx/publications/leave-no-one-behind • Prevent disease • Prolong health life • Promote health & wellbeing
Mental Health Strategy. The Service will be involved at the core of the development of a new University Mental Health Strategy. • Suicide Prevention Strategy- The Service will be involved in the completion and delivery of the Suicide Prevention Strategy. References –
Mental Health Strategy. The lead commissioner will be responsible for leading on the development of a strategy for adult, older persons and child and adolescent mental health services. This will be fully formulated every three to five years and refreshed annually and set out how the lead commissioner will meet local needs in the most effective way. The initial focus of the strategy will be adult mental health services, but commissioners will need to demonstrate that the approach to transitions into the service for children and young people from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and the approach to transitions into services for Older People with Mental Health needs is robust, meets users’ needs and addresses concerns about poor transfer between services. The strategy will not focus solely on traditional health and social care services but on all services which can have an impact on good mental health and emotional wellbeing. These can encompass, but are not limited to housing, leisure services, employment support and relationship development all of which contribute to the achievement and maintenance of good mental health. The strategy will articulate how services will work together to identify needs and to determine how they will best be met. The strategy will need to align with other strategies in place including Carers, Health and Wellbeing, Employment and Housing Need.
Mental Health Strategy. Abertay has a range of policies and activities intended to support and promote the mental health and wellbeing of our students and staff. This includes the Student Mental Health Policy. Students have access to a range of support, which includes our Counselling and Mental Health Service available to all Abertay students. For staff, these include our Mental Health & Wellbeing Policy for staff and our Healthy Working Lives strategy (see below). We are currently considering the development of an overarching strategy which would encompass all relevant policy and strategy in this area, with a view to putting this in place during 2019-20. ‘Mental health in the workplace’ training is provided for staff with line manager responsibilities. The University offers employees an independent, free and confidential counselling service to provide the opportunity for staff to discuss problems and receive support for mental health issues away from their work place. Recent activity included a mental health promotion week in May 2018, with mainly on-line resources and the production of an internal video entitled “surviving or thriving”. The concept was to open the conversations about mental health and to highlight that fluctuations affect us all. The Students’ Association are working with Think-Positive to develop a mental health agreement as per the guidance. We will be developing a small working group to deliver the agreement with the hope that there is a draft put to People, Health and Equality. The working group will be made up of Students and Staff. A final report will be submitted to Think Positive by mid-June. Abertay Sport are signatories of the SAMH Charter for Physical Activity and Sport. As part of this we were required to create an action plan around using sport and physical activity to promote positive mental health and support those with mental health issues. Details on the charter can be found here and our action plan can be found here.
Mental Health Strategy. This strategy outlines Scotland's approach to improving mental health and well-being, including prevention, early intervention, and treatment. The Care and Wellbeing Portfolio is the overall strategic reform policy and delivery framework within Health and Social Care. It brings oversight and coherence to the major health and care reform programmes designed to improve population health, address health inequalities and improve health and care system sustainability. Scotland continues to face significant population health challenges: stalling (and in some groups falling) healthy life expectancy, and widening levels of inequality, exacerbated by COVID-19. In addition, the pandemic has further increased demand on health and care services. Improving health requires improved system sustainability and, even more critically, improved outcomes in the wider factors that create health – good early years; learning, jobs; income; and supportive communities. The Portfolio provides an opportunity to take a systematic approach to planning and delivering care and wellbeing. Portfolio objectives focus on coherence, sustainability and improved outcomes both within health and care, and across government, with the overall goal of improving population health and reducing health inequalities. Furthermore, the recent Health Foundation report ‘Leave no one behind’i clearly highlights that despite undoubted policy ambition, effective implementation has fallen short with inequalities persisting and growing across Scotland. Most importantly, the report recognises that change requires practical, up and downstream collaboration and action across all parts of the delivery system and from the public. More than ever this emphasises the need for collective action.
