Chamber and committees

Dr MacGilleEathain, I would like to hear a bit more about the work that you did on mental health services, because one theme in the responses to the committee related to mental health and addiction services. People spoke about their concerns about the lack of availability of such services, as you said. Issues relating to waiting lists and access were raised in a number of submissions.

People also spoke about health inequalities and deprivation, which are common across the country. You talked about the services that people are looking for in rural areas, but people in urban areas would also very much appreciate preventative community-based services.

You spoke about the model that you used when engaging with a community and said that you had done a “consensus-building exercise”. Can you speak a bit more about that so that we can understand what happened?

I suppose that, in the Highlands, housing will play a big part.

I will put a brief supplementary question to Professor Smith, who is a board member at NHS Eileanan Siar this year. It is good to hear about the principles, but if there were a specific example from the Western Isles that would add a bit of colour to our discussion, that would be helpful.

It absolutely does. Did you say that that work was done on the Black Isle?

How did the health board respond to that work? Was there any change in services for the citizens who live there?

I am aware of the first example, and I think that it is slightly different when we are talking about safety concerns, so shall we move to the other one, where you said that there was good practice? You said that there was engagement with the community. What did that look like? Who did the health board speak to? How did it do it?

Thank you.

Okay. Some respondents highlighted that a whole-system approach to policy action is necessary. What is a “whole-system approach” and how could it be used to the benefit of people living in rural areas?

Good morning, panel. One of the areas that was identified for priority focus was early deaths of care-experienced children and young people. I would like to hear from you on that.

I was quite surprised to read that information about the circumstances of early deaths is not collected. I understand that there is now a national hub for reviewing and learning from early deaths of our children and young people in care.

Perhaps we could hear about that work from Kevin Mitchell initially.

Thank you for that answer. That is exactly the point, is it not? The system has to understand individuals’ lives.

I do not know whether Mike Burns has anything further to add.