Coronavirus (COVID-19): mental health - transition and recovery plan

19. Conclusion

As we work towards transition and recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, we need to ensure that the importance of protecting our mental health is just as widely understood as looking after our physical health. The two are fundamentally inter-related.

We know that there will be challenges in the months and indeed years ahead. That is why, in the coming phases of our response to the pandemic, mental health and wellbeing must continue to be to the fore.

This document sets out a wide-ranging approach to our mental health transition and recovery. Fulfilling the ambitions laid out in this Plan will require a collaborative and integrated approach involving a broad range of partners and stakeholders. That will include developing full implementation plans for the actions outlined above.

Some commitments are already well-developed, and can be progressed at speed. We have highlighted some of the immediate steps that we will take throughout this document. However, other deliverables will take longer to achieve. We will continue the partnership working approach we have taken during the development of this document, ensuring that our partners remain central to the delivery of each action. That includes any decisions about how to prioritise the most urgent work.

We will also seek to connect the deliverables within this plan to other strategies and actions set being taken forward across Scotland's wider Covid-19 response. Some of the key links include the Fair Work First policy, the Fairer Scotland Action Plan, the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board, the Suicide Prevention Action Plan, and many others.

There is also the context of a number of other commitments which are specifically focused on mental health. These include the Mental Health Strategy, the commitments made in the Scottish Government's Programmes for Government, the reports by the independent Care Review, and the remobilisation planning that has been led by NHS Boards. There are also the plans and strategies of Scotland's third sector, who work to support those with mental health conditions every day.

We want to be ambitious. Ultimately, we must ensure that everyone in Scotland is supported to achieve and maintain good mental health. We also want the right help and support to be available whenever it is needed. That includes specialist services for when mental illness does occur.

The Scottish Government would like to thank all of our partners and the organisations that have contributed to this Plan. We look forward to working together as we face, and respond to, the further challenges that lie ahead.