A charity boss is calling on the Scottish Government to stop “robbing” Highland communities caught in a mental health crisis.
Mark Smith, of the Joshi Project, has written to Mental Wellbeing Minister Kevin Stewart following a Press and Journal report highlighting the numbers of incidents that had closed the Kessock Bridge due to concerns for people’s welfare.
In 2022, there were 203 closures of the bridge, three times the 2020 total, something Mr Smith said is a sure sign the system, as it is at the moment, is not working.
Mr Smith and his wife Cath set up the Joshi Project after their daughter took her own life in 2020, aged 24.
The couple have since been trying to gain support for a pilot project in Inverness to reduce mental ill health.
In an open letter to Mr Stewart, who is also Aberdeen Central MSP, Mr Smith called for a solution – other than what is being done now.
‘You must do something to change this’
Mr Smith believes the mental health system as it is at the moment, has had no real impact or change to the high numbers of people in the Highlands who take their own life.
He said: “This is an untenable situation. Thousands of others are living lives of abject misery as a result of the failings of mental health services.
“This robs our society, our communities and our country of the precious contributions of thousands of people who deserve much better.
“You have a ticking time bomb on your watch as Scotland’s minister for mental wellbeing and social care. You must do something to change this – not just in the Highlands, but all across Scotland.
“Installing CCTV on Kessock Bridge is not going to solve the crisis. ”
Scotland should adopt Trieste model of mental health care
He continued: “The good news is that the crisis can be solved.
“There is a system of mental health care and treatment recognised by the World Health Organisation as the world’s most effective system of recovery from pretty much every form of mental illness.
“The vision of the Joshi Project is to establish the Trieste model of mental health care in Scotland. This is a system of social psychiatry, based on a hugely successful model that has operated in the Italian city of Trieste for more than 40 years.
It has become very clear there is no appetite to solve the mental health crisis in the Highlands.”
– Mark Smith, the Joshi Project
“It has now been established in 30 countries, and pilot programmes have been established in at least six NHS trusts in England and Wales. It has become very clear there is no appetite to solve the mental health crisis in the Highlands.”
He continued: “At the end of the day, it’s the Scottish Government that sets national objectives and priorities for NHS in Scotland. ”
Mr Smith said that for £120,000, a pilot project could be established in the Highlands, an area he says has an acute mental health problem.
He said: “Aside from the money, we just need someone to take seriously the support of the whole community with people with mental health issues.”
Mr Stewart said: “Our new suicide prevention strategy and action plan continues to address locations of concern as a priority.
“We have developed our Distress Brief Intervention programme to provide support to people who are in distress and in contact with frontline services. Inverness is one of the four areas in which DBI was originally piloted from 2017 and we are on target for rolling this out across all NHS board areas by March 2024.”
More than 200 Kessock Bridge closures in 2022 – a five-year high
Conversation