Thanks to a parliamentary question by Emma Harper on Tuesday 28th January 2020 we can reveal increases in spending, between 2007 and 2019, ranging from 52% to 876%. Details for each board are here:
Massive increases in investment in Child and Adolescent Mental Health expenditure across Scotland
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
As much as im pleased there has been at an at least 52.8% increase it has been over a 10yr period so if you take inflation into account the actual figures are much less encouraging. If you also consider the health board with the smallest rise is also the largest … GG&C then its actually even more worrying.
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Don’t be silly Elizabeth inflation over the lest ten years has not been 50% a little over half that so this investment has been substantial
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Yes Terrence the investment has been substantial, but two issues cannot really be considered from the pov of financials – important as these are. But, as so often money is necessary, but seldom sufficient.
I know from the experience of a near relative that if you present with mental health problems you will be treated with CBT. There are several reasons for this. One is that it claims good outcomes – 80% are said to have a positive outcome from this treatment (I do wonder what “positive” means, but that’s for another day). The other reason is that it’s relatively cheap. Those patients who see a Psychiatrist are a relatively small proportion, and most are likely to see a Community Psychiatric Nurse who has been trained in the use of CBT. So cost is a driver here – how many CPNs can you get for on Psychiatrist, or even Clinical Psychologist.
But what if you are not one of the 80%? What if you are one of the 20% for which CBT does not produce a “positive outcome”. In that case one might hope other methods would be available – psychotherapy for instance. However, I know of at least one clinic that for a time had no psychotherapist, thus it behaved in the manner of if all you have is a hammer you treat everything as though it were a nail.
This takes me on to the second point – it’s all very well to put up the dosh, but are there enough staff, trained and competent in the appropriate skills? Given the constraints there will still be on costs (there are always are, they are just relative) are we “doing it on the cheap”? For instance, as I said, the advantage of CBT is that it can be provided more cheaply by a trained CPN, but they wont have the background – educational at least – of a trained Clinical Psychologist. I understand that CPNs are being trained in psychotherapy, which is a good thing as it will make an alternative to CBT more widely available, but again educational background rears its head.
In short Terrence, it’s not all in the figures.
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Yes, but, does it, nevertheless, convince as better news than Reporting Scotland would feed us?
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