Funding for mental health care is crucial - your views

" We would urge the political parties to make this a budget to tackle mental health crisis”

Funding for mental health care is crucial

As a coalition of leading providers of care and support to vulnerable children and young people, we echo the call by the Scottish Association for Mental Health in its manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections for “radical action” to combat a mental health crisis.

We have for some time raised concerns over a potential lost generation of vulnerable children and young people, whose mental health is being impacted even further by the pandemic.

Prior to the pandemic, cases of poor mental health were at unprecedented levels and there are a growing number of vulnerable children who cannot access services.

Our children are remarkably resilient, but the frightening statistics on the mental health create a compelling case for a national crusade to address what is a mental health pandemic, underpinned by considerably greater resourcing.

Unless the government takes urgent action now to improve access to services, this young generation will be destined for a future of mental ill health, with resultant longer-term consequences.

As the Scottish Parliament deliberates the draft budget in advance of the elections, we would urge the political parties to make this a budget for mental health, massively increasing investment in support services and intervention strategies.

This mental health crisis is one we can address, but it will require a similar energy, drive and commitment to that which was demonstrated for Covid-19 if we are to achieve this and prevent this generation of young people giving up on their futures – and themselves.

Kenny Graham, Lynn Bell, Stephen McGhee, Niall Kelly, The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition, Edinburgh.

Scotland – home of the magic money tree

Here in Scotland we are fortunate to be awash with money, with our public funds brimming over during an unprecedented crisis.

That is the impression one would get from the proposal for the Scottish government to provide a subsidy to enable them to introduce a four-day working week with no loss of pay. This proposal was, unsurprisingly, passed at the SNP conference and is being supported by the STU, other unions a ‘charities hub’ and a think tank.

It is claimed that the initiative could create up to 60,000 new jobs. And, no doubt, it would also create plenty of opportunities for overtime working with pay at overtime rates.

The country with the highest deficit in Europe and low levels of productivity can somehow, from somewhere, find the money to subsidise this initiative?

Is this all part of the SNP’s new MMT strategy, known to its proponents as Modern Monetary Theory and to the sane and numerate among us as the Magic Money Tree?

Jill Stephenson, Glenlockhart Valley, Edinburgh

Leave fish in the sea, not on the table

If you’re leaving meat off your plate during Lent, please extend your compassion to fish, too.

People of all faiths surely agree cruelty to animals violates their religious principles, yet fish suffer before they reach our dinner tables, along with “non-target” victims such as dolphins and turtles .

Farmed fish suffer from stress, infections, and parasites. Fish are intelligent, with long-term memories and complex social relationships.

Leaving fish and other animal-derived foods off our plates during Lent and beyond is a simple way to honour all of God’s creation.

Sascha Camilli, PETA, All Saints Street, London N1.