Politics: Local GP support will help veterans and armed forces families in Aberdeenshire
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It was an honour to once again take part in the Remembrance Sunday service in Inverurie earlier this month.
I would like to thank the Royal British Legion for inviting Councillor Neil Baillie and I along to play a role and also to St Andrews Church for a beautiful service.
May we remember them and strive for peace in their name.
I was pleased the Scottish Government announced that veterans and the families of those in the armed forces will receive more tailored healthcare under a new scheme for GPs.
The General Practice Armed Forces and Veterans Recognition Scheme is now open to GP surgeries across Scotland, including in Aberdeenshire, following a successful pilot.
It includes easy access to training materials setting out the specific issues these individuals face in clinical case to aid understanding of specific needs and the range of healthcare support that can be provided.
This will better enable healthcare providers to focus on the specific health challenges they may face following military service.
The launch of this scheme will see more tailored, local support delivered to veterans and armed forces families in Aberdeenshire.
The Scottish Government is taking meaningful action to support those who have served our country and continue to do so, along with their families, and this scheme will go a long way to addressing the specific challenges that these individuals face.
It is also important to recognise the huge sacrifice that so many have made to keep us safe, particularly as we have just celebrated Remembrance Sunday.
I would like to encourage GPs in Aberdeenshire who have not already done so to sign up so that more individuals and their families can benefit from this scheme.
New figures out recently have shown that more than 6000 Welfare Fund Payments have been made to support constituents in the north-east between July 2022 and June 2023.
This is great news and the provisions came from the Scottish Welfare Fund.
The funding consists of Community Care Grants and Crisis Grants which come from a national scheme set-up by the Scottish Government.
It is administered by local authorities which provides support to those most in need.
And the latest figures have shown that in Aberdeenshire, 1210 Community Care Grants have been awarded in addition to 5320 Crisis Grants.
Since the Scottish Government introduced the Scottish Welfare Fund in 2013, £410 million has been awarded to support 519,890 individual households.
The Scottish Welfare Fund is a vital resource that is supporting the most vulnerable individuals across Aberdeenshire. The fact this support remains so vital to Aberdeenshire is a damning inditement of the harm caused by more than a decade of austerity.
The Scottish Government continues to deliver the support required to tackle poverty and mitigate Westminster’s cruel welfare regime.
The Scottish Welfare Fund helps families and people in Scotland who are on low incomes through Community Care Grants, which support people to start to live, or to carry on living, a settled life in the community and Crisis Grants, for disasters like a fire or flood), or emergencies like an unexpected expense.
