MSP Gillian Martin welcomes funding boost for child and adolescent mental health services
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Aberdeenshire East MSP Gillian Martin has welcomed an update on improvements to children and young people’s mental health services from the Scottish Government.
Mental Health Minister Clare Haughey has written to health boards setting out priority areas of investment from the Scottish Government’s recently announced a £120million Recovery And Renewal Fund.
The Minister said around £40million will be made available to take forward dedicated work to improve Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
The funding will include capacity building to meet expected increases in demand, specialist neurodevelopmental assessments and ensuring young people have access to intensive psychiatric inpatient care when they need it.
A total of £15million will also be invested to help clear backlogs in CAMHS and Psychological Therapies waiting lists.
Commenting, Gillian Martin MSP said: “This Scottish Government funding is very welcome and will go a long way to helping young people who have been adversely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Scottish Government’s £120million Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund is the single largest investment in mental health in the history of devolution and it shows the priority which is being placed on mental health.
“As lockdown restrictions ease and we begin the slow return to a new normal this funding is necessary to help support our young people whose lives have been so dramatically changed by the pandemic.”
