An enhanced mental health service aimed at supporting teens in Scotland was unveiled yesterday at NHS 24’s Annual Review. The programme, which will promote the benefits of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for improving mental wellbeing for the over 16s, and delivered via NHS 24’s Living Life service , will initially be piloted in a single health board area.
The announcement came as part of the wider information provided on the performance of NHS 24 for the period 2016-17.
The event was held at Clydebank’s Golden Jubilee National Hospital where staff and members of the public were able to hear about the progress the organisation has made over the past year, including the implementation of a new technology system across the national NHS 24 network.
Stakeholders attending the Review heard details of the increase in call demand to NHS 24’s mental health phone-line, with annual total calls to the Breathing Space service reaching almost 85,000, the highest figure since it was launched 14 years ago.
NHS 24’s Chair Esther Roberton said: “Mental health and physical health go hand-in-hand so it is imperative that mental wellbeing is a priority for NHS 24. In alignment with the Scottish Government’s mental health strategy, we want to ensure that all of our services meet this need, whether that’s through our 111 unscheduled care service, Breathing Space, Living Life or our digital offerings. We are currently undertaking a wider review of our mental health service provision and our bespoke Living Life CBT pilot project for young people is just the beginning.”
The new telephone-based CBT programme, which follows the national roll-out of our computerised CBT service for adults living with low mood and anxiety earlier this year, aims to support young people in full-time education with challenging patterns of behaviour and thought processes that are negative, destructive or distressing and replace them with more positive ones. The project will involve awareness-raising in high schools, colleges and universities and will work in alignment with community mental health teams.
Funding for the programme will come from the additional £500,000 package provided by Scottish Government to support the range of mental health services provided by NHS 24.
The Review also heard from a range of stakeholders including the Scottish Council on Deafness, the Alliance and NHS Lothian’s Out-of-Hours Service who posed questions about service provision in these key areas.
Further information on the NHS 24 Annual Review is available at the following link: http://www.nhs24.scot/about-nhs-24/reports/corporate-reports/annual-review/
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