"My mother died with dementia," says Maureen Watt, Scotland's new minister for mental health. "That was very distressing for everyone involved."

She is reflecting on her own experience of people who have suffered mental health issues. "As you get older, you experience more deaths among your family and friends and how family and friends cope with it," she continues. "Some cope with it very well and it is about taking time to be with them and offer support.

"If it is very distressing and they are not coping, helping them get the right services is very important rather than just thinking you can sort it out yourself."

With as many as one in three people in Scotland affected by a mental health problem each year, it is not surprising Ms Watt has first hand experience.

Her new appointment, which makes her the first minister dedicated purely to mental health in the UK, reflects the growing prioritisation of this area of healthcare. It featured across the party election manifestos.

Ms Watt says her constituency office faces onto a busy street in Aberdeen and sometimes people come in who are "pretty disturbed". Sometimes, she said, she can help by writing a letter to the health board "sometimes it is just taking the time to offer them a cup of tea and sit with them and be the listener that they want."

Now, of course, she is responsible for the very services she has written to at a time when the delays patients experience waiting to see specialists has been a cause of serious concern.

The latest figures show 2318 adults waiting more than 18 weeks for psychological therapies in Scotland in the first three months of this year. Action is also being demanded to address how long children with mental health issues wait to be seen, with some 700 teenagers and children queuing beyond 18 weeks to see a specialist about a mental health problem between January 1 and March 31.

Ms Watt has been quoted saying these figures are "far from good enough" but in this, her first interview since her appointment, she appears much less concerned. She said: "Because stigma is reducing more people are coming forward so we have got more people to treat, but I think we have done really well. Half patients are seen within eight to nine weeks. Some people who are more distressed are seen immediately or in a couple of days. Others who are not considered to be such a priority may have to wait a bit longer."

She quotes a 25% increase in the number of staff working for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services since 2009 and says she thinks Scotland was the first country to introduce targets in the first place.

Now all waiting times targets in Scotland are being reviewed by a group of experts commissioned by Health Secretary Shona Robison. Pre-empting their findings, Ms Watt reveals work has begun on creating new barometers for how well mental health services are performing. These will measure how well patients recover for the first time, potentially recording how many can return to work or build relationships after treatment.

Ms Watt said: "Targets are there to be met, but I would say in conjunction with that we need to make sure that what we are putting in is giving us the results that we want to see at the end. I want to make sure that the extra £150m investment that is talked about, which is over an above what's already spent on mental health, is being used to the best effect, to make sure children and young people end up living as healthy lives as possible."

Her eye, however, is on the frontline as well as the paperwork. "I do not want to focus all our resources in building up this database at the expense of putting resources into dealing with patients," she said.

She was, she said, happy with the way her mother Ella Watt from Banffshire, was looked after - although she notes the available treatments have improved hugely since then.

Taking steps to prevent dementia by "encouraging people to live healthily, take more exercise, watch what they are eating and drinking" is an area she is interested in.

It is, she pointed out, early days since she was handed the portfolio - although there is one thing she is clear on: "I think mental health is as important as physical health. You have to look at the whole person."