- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 22 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recommendation in its Peer Support in Perinatal Mental Health action plan, how it is ensuring that peer support services for perinatal mental health recognise and celebrate the benefits of peer experience.
Answer
To recognise and celebrate the benefits of peer support and experience we established an annual Peer Support in Perinatal Mental Health Event which brings together hundreds of practitioners from across Scotland to showcase good practice. These events highlight and celebrate the role of peer support in supporting and complementing clinical work.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 22 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recommendation in its Peer Support in Perinatal Mental Health action plan, how it is has built evaluation into peer support services for perinatal mental health to ensure that they are meeting the needs of clients and peer supporters, and providing safe, appropriate, and effective services.
Answer
The Scottish Government has worked closely with Inspiring Scotland and Evaluation Support Scotland to co-produce an Evaluation Toolkit for perinatal peer support, together with charities in our third sector fund portfolios. This Evaluation Toolkit was published on 1 March 2023.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 22 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recommendation in its Peer Support in Perinatal Mental Health action plan, what it has done to ensure that peer support for perinatal mental health is available in a variety of formats, so that it meets the needs of a wide range of mothers and carers.
Answer
Peer Support is available in a variety of forms across Scotland. The Scottish Government has recently worked with the Scottish Recovery Network to develop a Perinatal Peer Support Resource , which launched on 20 April 2023. This is a toolkit to inform the planning and delivery of perinatal peer support activities which are easily accessible across Scotland.
Through its Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Fund, the Scottish Government is supporting third sector organisations which are delivering peer support services through a variety of means. These range from facilitated drop-in sessions to online support groups which can reach parents and carers who do not want to or are unable to attend groups in person. To meet the needs of a wide range of mothers and carers, we also fund peer support groups for family units; peer support volunteers who offer emotional and practical support to families; and paid peer support workers.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 22 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recommendation in its Peer Support in Perinatal Mental Health action plan, what it has done to create regional perinatal mental health networks with statutory and third sector services to share best practice and aid appropriate referrals.
Answer
The Scottish Government, in conjunction with the clinical support of the Perinatal Mental Health Network Scotland, has funded regional roles across the North, East and West of Scotland. Nurse Consultants in each region are responsible for coordinating regional support. Scottish Government continues to support boards to work across regions to improve equity of service provision and ensure that smaller and rural health boards are able to provide specialist perinatal services across their populations.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 22 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recommendation in its Peer Support in Perinatal Mental Health action plan, what it has done to ensure that all peer support services for perinatal mental health have their own policy around safeguarding peer support workers, volunteers and service users.
Answer
The Scottish Government worked with Scottish Recovery Network to develop a Perinatal Peer Support Resource which launched on 20 April 2023 and can be found at the following link - Let's do Peer Support: Bump, Birth & Beyond - Scottish Recovery Network . The resource includes guidance on how to keep peer support workers, volunteers and service users safe. It also contains links to good practice and specialised training from more established organisations should peer support workers or volunteers feel they need further information and guidance.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 22 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recommendation in its Peer Support in Perinatal Mental Health action plan, how it is ensuring that peer workers or peer volunteers for perinatal mental health do not replace clinical staff or are asked to do their work.
Answer
We recognise the value of peer support as a key component of perinatal mental health support. However, we are clear that this does not replace the need for clinical services where that is required to help individuals and their families.
The Scottish Government is supporting clinical service provision by investing in the development and implementation of Community Mental Health Services, Mother and Baby Units, Infant Mental Health and Maternity Neonatal Phycological Interventions services. This is creating capacity within clinical services to ensure they are well placed to offer effective perinatal support in every health board across Scotland, with peer support services complementing clinical work.
NHS Boards have local governance for peer support roles which will include the scope of the role, confidentiality and supervision arrangements. Mother and Baby Units can access guidance on peer support worker roles and the support which should be provided for them from Perinatal Mental Health Network Scotland.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 22 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recommendation in its Peer Support in Perinatal Mental Health action plan, what it has done to ensure that specialised approaches to recruitment, robust and ongoing training, appropriate and timely clinical supervision and support for ongoing good practice in perinatal mental health exist.
Answer
Since 2019, the Scottish Government has invested over £26 million in improvements to perinatal services and support for parents, infants and families across Scotland. This investment has facilitated a substantial increase in services and workforce across Scotland.
The Scottish Government also supports the Perinatal Mental Health Scotland Network which provides support to health boards on all aspects of service development, training, supervision and good practice.
Our investment also supports NHS Education Scotland to undertake workforce development and training, including a suite of training accessible to all professionals across Scotland.
The Scottish Government will continue to invest in perinatal and infant mental health to enable boards to recruit the required staff; to further establish specialist community perinatal and infant mental health services and to deliver on Scottish Government commitments towards perinatal and infant mental health in the long term.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 22 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recommendation in its Peer Support in Perinatal Mental Health action plan, what targeted peer support in perinatal mental health services it has created to meet the particular needs of groups who are, or were, underserved by services, and what any such services are.
Answer
The Scottish Government Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Fund provides £80,000 per year to support Amma Birth Companions which provides trauma-informed emotional and practical support to vulnerable women who would otherwise experience birth without a partner or who are likely to face significant barriers to accessing perinatal care. The individuals they support are mostly refugees, asylum seekers and people living in poverty. Amma's service include birth and postnatal companionship, antenatal classes and peer support activities and aims to support the wellbeing and life chances of both mothers and fathers.
Remote and rural services face challenges due to how geographically isolated some of the communities are throughout Scotland. The Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Fund therefore also supports multiple organisations across rural Scotland to provide services to remote areas, these services include Action for Children services in the Western Isles, Home Start Caithness, South Lanarkshire and many more. They provide non-clinical, community based parenting and peer support services which help women and families affected by, or at risk of, perinatal mental health difficulties.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 22 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recommendation in its Peer Support in Perinatal Mental Health action plan, whether specific perinatal mental health peer support services for men have become more widely available since March 2021, and, if so, what groups exist, broken down by the geographical areas in which they operate.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17835 on 22 May 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
There is also the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Third Sector Service Directory on Inspiring Scotland’s website which lists organisations across Scotland who currently offer perinatal and infant mental health support. This can be found at: Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Third Sector Service Directory - Inspiring Scotland.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 May 2023
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 24 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on what rules and incentives are central to a wellbeing economy.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 24 May 2023
