Mental Health and Wellbeing in Primary Care Services (Amendment 1)
S6M-02747.1: As an amendment to motion S6M-02747 in the name of Kevin Stewart (Mental Health and Wellbeing in Primary Care Services), leave out from "further recognises" to end and insert "regrets the Scottish Government’s continued failure to remedy existing problems facing NHS mental health services; notes that the 18-week waiting time targets for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) has never been met and there are currently almost 2,000 children and young people on the waiting list who have waited over a year to begin treatment; considers that, with over 1,000 vacancies for mental health nurses and almost 100 consultant psychiatrist vacancies, staff shortages are undermining efforts to improve services; notes that the Scottish Government is on track to miss its target to recruit 800 mental health workers; believes that every GP practice should have access to a mental health professional to support patients close to home and reduce pressure on GPs; agrees that investment in mental health must be increased, including in community-based services, and calls for mental health spending to be increased to at least 11% of the NHS budget."

Original motion(S6M-02747):
That the Parliament recognises the importance of improving capability and capacity for mental health assessment, care and support within primary care settings as Scotland recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic; further recognises the progress that has already been made to boost capacity in GP settings through funding from Action 15 of the 2017 Mental Health Strategy and Primary Care Improvement Plans; welcomes the commitment to further expand mental health and wellbeing primary care services, initially supported by the £120 million Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund; considers that this collaborative model will create 1,000 additional roles within primary care settings across a range of disciplines, establish and embed links between primary care and community assets, and increase the use of social prescribing and community link workers to improve mental health and wellbeing, and supports the development and implementation of those multi-disciplinary mental health and wellbeing teams in primary care services to ensure better and more timely access to support and treatment for people for mental health, distress or wellbeing issues.