Email from Jamie Hepburn Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health

Hi there, As well as setting up this petition I have been emailing various politicians in various councils as well as current ministers. Today i received a reply from Jamie Hepburn the Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health. He mentions that it would be something that could be considered in a long term future plan and to keep in touch after May 5th. I shall copy and past his email. "Dear Julia, Thank you for your email. I am sorry to hear about your own challenges with depression and want to wish you well as you seek the treatment you require. Providing better support for mental health services is something that my party in government has been absolutely committed to taking forward and remain committed to should we be successfully returned as the next Scottish Government following the election. Under our tenure, identifiable expenditure on mental health services has risen by almost 40% and we introduced specific waiting time targets for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services - the first country in the world to do so - and also for psychological therapies - the first of the UK countries to do so. We have also announced an additional £150million for mental health over the coming five years to continue driving improvements. We have also funded the See Me anti-stigma programme as well as Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Strategies. Indeed, on the latter, we are currently working to renew our mental health strategy to focus on key priorities for the immediate next few years as well as committing in our manifesto to a new ten-year plan to transform mental health care in Scotland, to ensure that we treat it with parity alongside physical health conditions, as is already set out in legislation. I believe much has been done to improve mental health services in recent years, with more staff working in that sector and more people being treated, and the stigmatisation around the area greatly reduced, but I recognise that much more needs to be done. As we seek to roll out a new mental health strategy and our ten year plan to transform services, I think it is important that we are prepared to be innovative in how we establish services and respond to issues raised by those seeking to access services. In that vein, I think it is right that we consider the issues you have raised about the accessibility of services around established patterns of working. If I am re-elected on 5th May, I will certainly be willing to look at that, whether or not I continue to have responsibility for the Scottish Government's mental health policy and would urge that you contact me at that time, and perhaps also your own local representative too. From the information you have given me about residing in Larbert, your SNP candidate is most likely to be Michael Matheson, who is standing in the Falkirk West constituency. Thanks again for emailing me. Yours, Jamie Hepburn" I will be talking on the phone to Michael Matheson the Falkirk SNP candidate tomorrow and i shall keep you updated :) Please keep sharing as the more signatures, the more seriously we will be taken. Julia x