By Lucy Ashton
Scottish Labour has warned that the country is facing a mental health crisis as new figures reveal just half of applications to the Scottish Government’s mental health funding scheme were successful.
The Communities Mental Health and Well-being Fund was set up after the pandemic to support local mental health initiatives, with the government claiming it demonstrated “the importance we place on community support as part of our overall mental health infrastructure and the commitments given by Scottish Ministers to increase direct mental health investment”.
However, figures obtained by Paul Sweeney MSP have revealed that the fund appears to be drastically oversubscribed, with almost half of applicants not awarded funding at the time of answering.
In a written answer the Scottish Government admitted that in 2022-23 the Fund received 2,585 applications but just 1,461 were awarded funding.
Scottish Labour Mental Health spokesperson Paul Sweeney, left, said “Scotland is in the grips of a mental health crisis and services across the board are struggling to cope.
“This funding was designed to support the vital work being done by community mental health services, but hundreds of projects stand to miss out.
“Along with the chaos in NHS services and the slow progress on school counselling, this is just the latest in a long list of failures under the SNP.
“The government’s sticking plaster approach isn’t working – we need a comprehensive plan to ensure people can get the mental health support they need when they need it.”
Top Picture: Gartnavel Royal Hospital at Anniesland in Glasgow.