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

1. Whole Population Mental Health

As well as focusing on the determinants of mental health, we want the people and communities of Scotland to remain engaged and well informed about wellbeing, mental health and mental ill-health. This includes being aware of the importance of mental health in their lives, and in the lives of those around them. We want people to be able to make positive health-promoting choices, be compassionate to others, enjoy a shared understanding of the language of mental health, and be aware of what mental health help and support is available to them.

• 1.1 - Clear Your Head. We will build on the success of Clear Your Head, a national mental health campaign to help people cope during the COVID pandemic. This campaign highlights the practical things people can do to help them feel better whilst continuing to stay at home, acknowledging these are worrying and uncertain times for many. The campaign will continue to evolve as we move through subsequent phases of our response to Covid-19.

• 1.2 - Measuring Population Mental Health. We will develop and report on outcome measures to demonstrate changes in population mental health and wellbeing. The outcome measures will also track changes to stigma, public attitudes, and the use of community-based support for mental health. This will include work to develop and report on population mental health and wellbeing indicators.

• 1.3 - Physical Activity. Reflecting the fundamentally important relationship between physical and mental health, we will build on the positive sport and physical activity behaviour changes we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as increased walking and cycling. We will build wider community participation particularly within disadvantaged and under-represented communities.

• 1.4 - Participation In Sport. We are working with sportscotland and Scottish Governing Bodies of Sport to rebuild membership and participation levels following the negative impacts of COVID-19.

• 1.5 - Behaviour Change. We are working with the newly appointed Scottish Daily Mile Co-ordinator to encourage physical activity in a number of settings to support long-term behaviour change, and specifically tackle the challenges around physical and mental health created by COVID-19.

• 1.6 - Tackling Stigma. We will continue our work with See Me to further develop our approach to tackling the fundamental barriers of stigma and discrimination. We will take advantage of the conversations about mental health that have taken place across Scottish communities over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown.