Chamber and committees

What plans does the Scottish Government have to ensure that local employment opportunities, particularly for young people, will be a key part of Scotland’s transition to net zero.

It is truly an honour to be elected to this special place, as our nation begins its recovery from Covid-19. I express my grateful thanks to my campaign team, to my loving family, to activists and to all my constituents in Aberdeen South and North Kincardine. I pay special tribute to Maureen Watt—the former first Minister for Mental Health—for her lifetime commitment to the constituency. She will be a very hard act to follow.

I will shamelessly big up Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, which is home to a thriving food and drinks industry, higher education, innovation and stunning coastlines. It is also home to a global energy sector. However, that sector is now experiencing a significant downturn, which places jobs and livelihood at risk. That situation has been compounded by the pandemic and by a disastrous Brexit. It has created a perfect storm, which has had a profound effect on many people—specifically, on their mental health.

Following a 31-year policing career, I joined the school of nursing, midwifery and paramedic practice at Robert Gordon University, delivering nurse education across the health and policing intersect. Never did I imagine, as I lectured to my first-year students on global health challenges, that, weeks later, they would be facing the prospect of their first placements on the front line of such a challenge. I pay tribute to them all, to all NHS staff, and to all my colleagues who returned to the front line. I pay tribute to former colleagues in the emergency services—in particular, those in Police Scotland, who had to balance daily law enforcement duties with using emergency Covid legislation and responding to the growing demand from mental health distress.

I am pleased to focus my first speech on mental health and to speak in support of the motion. Even the most resilient of us felt the mental health impact of the pandemic. However, for young adults, those on low incomes, and others, the impact was significant, especially in cases in which access to care, treatment and psychological therapies was curtailed. The mental health transition and recovery plan builds on work that is already under way in response to Covid-19, and I welcome the range of engagement that informed its priorities. I am pleased that addressing CAMHS waiting times will be prioritised and that programmes such as distress brief interventions will be rolled out.

In what is dementia awareness week, many of my constituents will welcome the commitment to ensuring equitable access to mental health support for older people. I very much hope that mental health will be at the centre of the NHS recovery plan that is mentioned in the motion.

Public service is what I know; it is who I am. Over many years, I have seen health and social care converge to make people’s lives better every day. A national care service is a turning point in our commitment to social care. It is an investment for us, not a burden on us, which offers the opportunity to deliver high-quality, accessible care that is designed around people’s rights and needs.

People in my constituency and across Scotland answered the call to action in the dark days of the pandemic. The Inchgarth Covid-19 support project, Community Food Initiatives North East—the CFINE food bank—Cove Woodland Trust and others all played their part in supporting mental wellbeing. I give them my commitment that I will work as hard as I can, across the Parliament and with the cabinet secretary, to support the Scottish Government to deliver the actions in the mental health recovery plan and in the ambitious NHS recovery plan that is at the heart of the motion.

took the oath.