Early Deaths and Mental Ill Health - Scotland must overcome culture of fatalism

The Mental Welfare Commission has today published the six priorities it is asking the government to include in Scotland's next mental health strategy.

They include setting a new target for Scotland to reduce the huge disparity in life expectancy between people with mental health issues and the general population.

At the moment, across high income countries such as Scotland, men with severe mental ill health die around 20 years before men who are not affected, and women die 15 years before they otherwise would.

This difference is not driven by suicide or injury, but largely by poor physical health, and the Commission wants a measurable target set to change that.

The Commission's other priorities are:

• A call for the new strategy to be built around a rights-based approach to mental ill health, and for the strategy to take account of the real life experience of people who have mental ill health.
• More to be done for children and young people, including reducing the numbers of young people with complex needs who have to go to England for treatment. The Commission also wants to see all children and young people with mental health problems get faster access to support in the community.
• Services in Scotland need to respond better to those who do not fit current health or care approaches. The Commission has, for example, highlighted serious issues for people with autistic spectrum disorder. The Scottish Government should examine the availability of specialist services for this group.
• The Scottish Government should end unequal provision of care. While there are many good examples of care, Scotland still has mental health wards with environments that would never be tolerated in wards for people with physical health problems. Access to psychological therapies and mental health crisis response can also be poor, and would not be accepted for treatments for physical conditions.
• Scotland needs a new approach to workforce development, with a revised set of skills and competencies to deliver a modern mental health service.

Colin McKay, chief executive, Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, said:

"Our first priority is to ask the Scottish Government to set a target to reduce the difference in life expectancy between people with severe mental ill health and the general population.

"The facts are shocking, with men dying 20 years earlier and women dying 15 years earlier than they otherwise would, largely due to poor physical health. That has to change.

"In many ways all five of our other priorities can be linked to this first priority. We are calling for a co-ordinated public health approach, linked to a central target, and measurable objectives set year on year. Other countries have made this a public health priority, and we need to do likewise."

Notes to Editors

The Next Mental Health Strategy - Mental Welfare Commission proposed priorities is available here.

For reference to early deaths, see - Thornicroft G (2011) Physical health disparities and mental illness: the scandal of premature mortality, British Journal of Psychiatry, 199:441-442 

Mary Mowat: 0131 313 8786

The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland