THE LIBERAL Democrats have pledged for every workplace in Scotland to have provision and training of mental health first aiders.
The party’s leader, Willie Rennie, announced the manifesto commitment as he revealed that training for both new mental health first aiders and instructors has been suspended for more than a year amid the pandemic.
The proposals are the first in a series of plans to boost mental health that the Scottish Lib Dems will unveil over the coming week.
The training of mental health first aiders is done by Public Health Scotland but was suspended when the pandemic struck – but the training continued in England where is instead being delivered as a virtual classroom course.
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Under the Lib Dem plans, an independent specialist body like Mental Health First Aid England would take over the delivery of the scheme. It would ramp up training so that every workplace can benefit from a mental health first aider.
Research from the Lib Dems has found 700,000 working days are lost to mental health between schools, the police and ambulance service.
The party led Holyrood in declaring a mental health crisis.
Mr Rennie said: "Businesses and public sector employers lose hundreds of thousands of working days to mental ill health each year. Our research indicates that this could have worsened during the pandemic.
"Adults regularly wait up to two years for mental health treatment. That comes at huge personal cost to their health but employers also miss out on their talents.
"Scottish Liberal Democrats want to give every workplace the protection of a trained mental health first aider.”
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He added: "Early intervention can avoid a problem that starts small becoming a crisis. I want someone in every workplace to be able to recognise the signs of mental ill health among colleagues and know what to do.
"It was wrong to suspend the training programme at the very moment it should have been ramped up.
"For a decade I have been a passionate champion of Scotland’s mental health. In the past month Scottish Liberal Democrats have led the Parliament in declaring a mental health crisis, against the wishes of the government, and secured £120 million more for mental health in the course of our budget negotiations with ministers.
"This should be the platform for a new government that puts recovery first and transforms mental health services."
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