Provide more Out of Hours mental health resources and support for the forgotten people, the working people in the age group between teenagers and the elderly, and help them feel like they have somewhere to turn/access to resources such as counselling and CBT without having to take time off work and lose their salary. I currently live in Larbert therefore I fall under Falkirk Council however I believe my query is relevant to the whole of Scotland and should be acted upon in a larger scale. The biggest problem I see in Falkirk (and Scotland in General) that seems to be forgotten about is the issue of mental health. Specifically I believe that the majority of people who voted in the most recent election are those who are consistently overlooked. Working people within the 20-60 age group seem to be seen as the least vulnerable. Politicians always focus on those that seen to be a high risk demographic, teenagers and the elderly, when the most stress in your life occurs during prime working age. People who suffer from depression or anxiety within that age group struggle to get support due to other responsibilities such as keeping a job, having money for bills etc and therefore can't afford to be signed off work. This leads to the problem of accessing services to help with mental health, the majority of counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) sessions are only available during normal working hours (Monday-Friday 9-5). If places do offer any evening sessions it is once per week and they are highly sought after leading to long waiting lists for people in need of urgent help. The only option left puts further strain on those effected by increasing outgoings due to having to pay for a service which is available for free during a restricted timescale. Mental wellbeing should be a right, not a luxury. I am aware places of work are meant to be accommodating when it comes to appointments but depression is a very personal issue with a lot of stigma attached making it difficult to talk about making it almost a social taboo. Even if someone is willing to confide in their manager about the issue not many places of work would be keen to let you away frequently occurring appointments. I believe more out of hours mental health resources should be provided to alleviate waiting time. This could be a vital change to stop people sinking deeper into depression with little to no support. I am a 25 year old female and I have been battling with depression for the past few years. The first time I was signed off led me to being unable to afford basic costs such as rent and food. This caused me to turn to credit cards and resulted in crippling debt. I have been referred for counselling before but it has always taken so long to come through that I have had to go back to work and could not attend. This time I had started a university course which I have had to suspend due to depression, I was referred to the Falkirk Mental Health Association (FDAMH) in February and was given a counselling date in April. Within that space time I have had to get a job to keep on top of bills etc which then meant I couldn’t attend the appointment that had been given to me and, to make matters worse, appointments out with working hours were not available at Stenhousmuir health centre. I was told I could phone FDAMH and self refer for out of hours counselling however this is only held on a Wednesday until 8pm and as mentioned above timescales are lengthy. The fast track system costs £35 per session (once a week for 8 weeks) and while this is much cheaper than private counselling it is still not a feasible outgoing. I  strongly believe that if there was more availability in services out with core work hours; depression rates would decrease, fewer people being signed off work getting themselves into financial difficulty in order to access support and most importantly fewer suicides due to feeling alone and like they have nowhere to turn. Not everyone wants to be on anti depressants and for a lot of people (myself included) anti depressants don’t work or can make the problem worse. I am rallying for better mental health support for the young/middle aged working person.   I believe Scotland should take this matter seriously and address it sufficiently. I know a lot of politicians have been mentioning the NHS in general but I would like to know if any support/improvements will be implemented in the mental health sector. I feel that the forgotten people need the support of their country leaders and changes to the current system.