 The next item of business is a debate on motion 9000 in the name of Maureen Watt on suicide prevention in Scotland. I would encourage all members who wish to speak in this debate to press their request-to-speak buttons now, and I call on Maureen Watt to speak to you and move the motion. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am pleased that today we have an opportunity to discuss suicide and its prevention in Scotland. The Scottish Government attaches the utmost priority to this high-profile area. Any death by suicide is a tragedy, with a deeply distressing impact on families and friends left behind. I've met quite a number of people bereaved by suicide. Unless we've been in this situation, we cannot understand fully what such a loss feels like, but we can all appreciate the extremely upsetting and traumatic effect of losing a loved one in this tragic way. Out of respect for those bereaved, I hope that we can speak in general terms today rather than on specific cases. Suicide is an extremely complex phenomenon with a wide range of determinant factors, including mental illness, being male unstable relationships, deprivation, adverse life effects, gender issues, substance misuse and contact with the criminal justice system. There is rarely any single identifiable causal factor related to individual deaths by suicide. That makes it extremely challenging to identify in advance the risk of any individual dying by suicide. Over the last decade, Scotland has seen a 17 per cent reduction in the rate of suicide as we debate the hugely important issue of suicide and its prevention. It is vital that we recognise the improvements that are taking place. It is also important that we understand where more work is required. For example, the rate of suicide among people experiencing mental illness has reduced at a slower rate than in the general population. That is an area where we want to see improved progress. You have just handed me a note asking me to card my speech. I have got about four minutes over, so if people want to raise issues during their contribution, I am happy to answer them in my closing speech. Our mental health strategy sets out our guiding ambition that we must prevent and treat mental health problems with the same commitment as we do physical health problems. You should only have to ask once to get help fast. The ambition also applies to supporting people at the risk of suicide. Our existing suicide prevention strategy sets out commitments under five broad themes which encapsulated the overall aims of the strategy. Responding to people in distress, talking about suicide, improving the NHS response to suicide, developing the evidence base, supporting change and improvement. We cannot say with certainty that any single action has had a direct causal link to the reduction in the suicide rate. However, we have provided funding and policy direction for a number of initiatives designed to improve support for people at risk of suicide. For example, NHS Scotland's national suicide prevention programme has been working nationally and locally to build skills through training to improve knowledge and awareness of good suicide prevention practice and to encourage improved co-ordination between services. We have provided funding to Samaritans, including a current grant to help Samaritans with increased telephone charges experienced as a result of their helpline now being free to access. Breathing space is a free telephone service for people experiencing low-mood depression or anxiety. It handles around 6,000 to 7,000 calls per month. Although it was originally set up to respond to the fact that around 70 per cent of deaths by suicide are by males, it provides a valuable service that is accessible to everyone. NHS Living Life is a free telephone psychological therapy service available out of hours to adults feeling low, anxious or depressed. Like breathing space, the services run for us by NHS 24. Last month, I visited staff who worked on breathing space and NHS Living Life. It was good to learn how early interventions can support people to deal with a range of mental health conditions. I announced £500,000 of development funding to improve the services that NHS 24 offers to people experiencing mental health problems. In recent years, GPs and other clinicians have developed improved knowledge, recognition and treatment of depression and anxiety. At the same time, anti-stigma work by CME has vastly improved public understanding of mental health. People now feel more comfortable about coming forward for help when they need it, so more people receive appropriate treatment and support for depression and anxiety. Members will also know of our work with partners to develop the innovative distress brief intervention. The DBI is about equipping people with skills and support to manage their own health and prevent future crisis. The pilot is being developed in Lanarkshire, Aberdeen, Inverness and the Scottish Borders. National partners include Police Scotland, the Scottish Ambulance Service and NHS 24. Those are all strong examples of our work with partners to help to reduce the rate of suicide in Scotland. The partnership approach is crucial to suicide prevention. It is also worth remembering, Presiding Officer, the role that we can all play in listening to friends, family and colleagues who may need an empathetic ear to speak about worries or ill health. Last year, NHS 24's breathing space team ran an awareness raising programme called the Year of Listening. I was pleased to learn last week of a new initiative by Network Rail, Samaritans and British Transport Police called Small Talks's Lives. That encourages the public to support those who may be in emotional crisis around them on the railway network. Listening carefully and providing support can help people to feel a stronger sense of connection helping to support confidence and wellbeing. We all agree that Scotland's children represent our country's future. Children and young people should have an understanding that it may not always be possible to enjoy good mental health and that, if that happens, support is available. Some local authorities provide school-based counselling. In others, schools use pastoral peer staff and liaison with educational psychological services and health services for specialist support. Every school has a named contact in the specialist children and adolescent mental health services who can be contacted if they have concerns about a pupil. We continue to support Childline, who provides confidential advice and information to children and young people affected by bullying and related issues. That forms part of our wider attempts to improve the wellbeing of children and young people through curriculum for excellence. We intend to publish a new suicide prevention action plan in 2018. To inform development of that, the first three in a series of pre-engagement events have been run for us by NHS Health Scotland, Samaritans and the Health and Social Care Alliance. Those events allow us to hear from people who have been affected by suicide and from those who directly engage with those affected by suicide so as to help to understand what might be done better or differently to reduce suicide and the impact that it has on those left behind. I look forward to seeing a report on those events in January. That will help to inform development of a draft action plan, which we will publish on our website as part of a wider engagement process in early spring next year. We hope to publish a final version in late spring 2018. Early emerging themes from delegates at the first few pre-engagement events include the scale and scope of training and support offered to healthcare and other professionals who engage with those at risk of suicide and the importance of public health approaches to improve our willingness and ability to respond to those in distress, including raising awareness for everyone. While we cannot pre-empt what might emerge over the full engagement process, those are already helpful pointers. We have also had extensive stakeholder discussions over recent years which helped to inform the content of the mental health strategy and the development of the DBI. We will continue that as we work towards a new suicide prevention action plan. We know from those discussions that many stakeholders would like, for example, to see a reinvigorated focus on local suicide prevention action. Currently each local authority area has a locally agreed suicide prevention action plan and most areas also have a local suicide prevention co-ordinator which can be a crucial element in driving forward effective suicide prevention action. We recognise the need for strong local action and will consider that as part of the engagement process. Nevertheless, there are already many examples of good local practice to support suicide prevention. For example, in the north-east, collaborative work between Aberdeen City Council, NHS Grampian, Police Scotland, cruise bereavement care and Samaritans has seen a reduction in the rate of deaths by suicide in the north-east by 20 and 10 per cent respectively over the last decade. In March 2016, as part of the local suicide prevention campaign, it developed a NAP signposting help and advice sites to users for searching ideas about suicide. We recognise that work. Tuesday, north-east, won both an innovation award and care for mental health award at this year's Scottish health awards as some of my colleagues were there and saw. Presiding Officer, there are other examples that I could go into but won't as you want me to be as brief as possible. In January, I will be visiting the partnership group of NHS 24, ScotRail and British Transport Police, First Bus and others, to look at health improvement and suicide prevention for employees and customers across a range of sectors. The next suicide prevention action plan can provide opportunities to share and replicate such examples of good practice across Scotland. I note the Conservative Labour amendments that you have accepted for debate today and I am minded to accept them also, but I most of all look forward to hearing members' views on this important topic over the course of this afternoon's debate. I move the motion in my name. Thank you, and I call Annie Wells to speak to you and move the motion in her name. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak today on such an important subject and one that unfortunately is not spoken about enough. The consequences of suicide are far reaching and when suicide is preventable, it is all the more heartbreaking for the families affected. I, too, extend my sympathy to those bereaved in this traumatic way and I welcome any effort to work collaboratively as parties in creating a successful suicide prevention strategy, one that seeks to learn from the good practices that we have seen so far and look honestly at where we need to improve. That is why we will be supporting the Government's motion today. We have unfortunately seen a positive decline in suicide figures, sincerely noughties, fallen by 18 per cent in Scotland between 2002 and 2013. Thanks in part to the Scottish Government's 2013 to 2016 suicide prevention strategy, which focused on improving the NHS's response, assisting people to talk about suicide and developing the evidence base. Figures continued to decline in the years after, but we should never be complacent. Whilst remaining sensitive to the fact that suicide figures are prone to fluctuate year on year, I think that we are united in our concern over suicide figures rising by 8 per cent in Scotland last year, the first such rise in six years. While suicide is a complex issue and one that can be difficult to fully understand, the death of 728 people in 2016, an increase of 56 upon the previous year, should be taken as an early warning sign and one that we act upon quickly. That is why I put forward an amendment seeking to address the gap that exists now with the previous strategy has expired. Key to informing the new strategy will be evaluating what has worked so far and what could be changed for the better. Charities working with the Government to inform the new strategy have commented on the need for consistency across local authorities, and that is something that I support. While Seach's local authority is responsible for the delivery of the Choose Life suicide prevention action plan, something that allows for the tailoring of services according to local needs, there needs to be clear ownership and oversight of that. SAMH has called for greater transparency and accountability in the funding of suicide prevention activities, highlighting that funding for those activities is not ring-fenced. Through FOIs, the mental health charity found almost half of Scotland's 32 local councils did not know or failed to provide information on their own suicide prevention budget and the associated workforce. The Samaritans have echoed this calling for clear reporting of visible leadership. It is also important that we work towards furthering the use of the evidence-based Spokov in the previous strategy as a means of targeting resources effectively. When it comes to demographics, for example, we know that people aged between 35 and 49 are disproportionately affected with 47 per cent of suicides last year taking place within this age bracket. We also know that despite suicide rate improving over the past decade in terms of numbers, many are still most affected by suicides. In 2016, 517 out of the 728 suicides were male compared to 211 women. In the UK, suicide is the single biggest killer of men under 50. That is why I congratulate the work of charities such as the Men's Shed Association, who attempt to address the reasons why men specifically do not come forward, in part due to societal expectations of men's behaviours and roles, by removing the stigma and creating a safe environment in which men can talk freely and at their will. That is why, looking forward, I urge health services to consider also how they can cater for men specifically. We also need to work with statistics from the Scottish suicide information database to understand how people at risk of suicide move through the health system. Although a large number of people still have no contact with them once before their death, a report published by the national database this month showed that 70 per cent of people had contact with healthcare services within 12 months of their death and that over a quarter died within three months of visiting A&E. We also know that a quarter of people had at least one psychiatric inpatient stay, a outpatient appointment in the last and the 12 months before death and that 59 per cent of people had at least one mental health drug prescription dispens within the same timeframe. Those statistics are telling. They show us that there are opportunities available in which to intercept as people have moved through the health system. That is why it is so important for NHS front-line staff to feel confident in identifying those at risk and be able to provide the appropriate support. I therefore support calls from charities for all health professionals to be provided with suicide intervention training. Working with all the emergency services is too key and I am pleased to see the Scottish Government's motion. Mental health foundations call for a national roll-out of the community triage following a successful pilot on NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde so that police officers have direct access to mental health professionals to support decision-making, to create the tensions of people in psychiatric distress or crisis. A final point that I would like to make today is to thank the charities that work tirelessly to help those at risk of suicide and improve the public's understanding of it. Charities have long understood the importance of innovative and specialist campaigns, which I also support the Samaritan's Small Talk Saves Lives campaign working with the British Transport Police and rail companies in the UK to reach out to those vulnerable to acts of suicide on our rail network. Based on the evidence of Samaritan trained rail with staff, the campaign's video seeks to give travellers the confidence to act if they notice someone who they think may be at risk on or around the railway network simply by the use of small talk, a skill that I think all Scots have. I was also honoured to recently meet with mental health charity campaigner, Josh Quigley, who, after attempting suicide, completed a 1,500-mile cycle trip last year across 80 countries to raise awareness of suicide prevention and mental health. It is through collaborative work of charities, public bodies and individuals like Josh that we are able to bring about real change. To finish today, I would again like to reiterate my support for the Government motion. This is a extremely important debate to talk candidly about a subject that is all too often still considered a taboo by many. We have a cross-party consensus that mental health is an issue that we must all put as a priority going forward. It is only by working together that we can continue to see improvement in preventing suicide. That is why I am looking forward to continuing to work with the Scottish Government in order to drive forward effective policies to tackle mental health and ensure that a new strategy of the amendment is in my name. Suicide prevention is a critically important issue and Scottish Labour welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the debate. The motion before us today is absolutely right in its statement that every suicide is a tragedy. On behalf of my colleagues, I extend our sympathy to everyone who has been bereaved by suicide. It is uncomfortable though that this serious issue deserves debate and discussion so that we can continue to reduce the number of people who are dying by suicide. The motion states that the suicide rate is down by 17 per cent over the last decade. However, last year, the number of people who died by suicide was 728 and 8 per cent rise on the year before and the first such rise in six years. There can be year-to-year fluctuations in the figures, but when we are talking about people's lives, we cannot be complacent. Each death by suicide is another tragedy and the impact of each one of those 728 deaths by suicide last year will have devastating ramifications and so many people for many years to come. Anyone death by suicide is one too many. It is crucial that the Scottish Government is bringing forward another suicide prevention action plan in the coming months. Although I have shared the concerns that have been raised about the fact that the Government allowed the 2013-16 strategy to expire with no updated plan being put in place. We will therefore be supporting both the Scottish Government's motion and the amendment in the name of Annie Wells which recognises the concern that the previous strategy was allowed to expire. I welcome the recognition from the motion on the importance of collaborative working. We know that suicide prevention work can only be successful when agencies are working together. The forthcoming action plan must make that happen more effectively. As has been mentioned already by the minister, the Scottish Health Awards took place recently and I had the pleasure of attending alongside other colleagues in the chamber to celebrate the amazing heroes who helped to deliver our health service day in and day out. The minister and I were fortuitously sat together at the event and both had the honour of watching the Trueslife North East Scotland initiative win a very well-deserved innovation award. There is no better example I can think of on the importance of collaborative working than the success of this project where the collaboration between local authorities, the health board, Police Scotland, and the Samaritans saw a 29 per cent reduction in suicides in a single year and another 40 per cent reduction in the first three months of this year. The spirit and success of this project must be captured within the new action plan so that this example of best practice can be rolled out across the country. Unfortunately, as we know only too well, there is still great variation in the success and availability of services and suicide prevention across Scotland. Earlier this year, the Samaritans released a report, Dying from Inequality. That report revealed the headline figures that are highlighted in my proposed amendment to today's motion, that those in deprived communities are three times more likely to die by suicide. The report found that those experiencing social economic disadvantage are more likely to experience and less likely to seek help. That partly explains why the suicide rate is much higher in deprived communities compared to the least deprived. An understanding that tackling low wages, insecure work and other factors such as unemployment are key contributors to the complex issue of suicide, therefore has to be central to the new action plan. Reducing the rate of suicide in Scotland cannot be achieved by investment in NHS services alone. It must be underpinned by a commitment to tackle poverty and inequality in all levels of our society. Suicide is also the biggest killer. We have to look at the wider causes and would she include the austerity agenda underpinning the welfare reforms in her list of things that influence people's mental health? Yes, absolutely. Reducing the rate of Scotland, as I said, cannot be achieved through the NHS alone. Suicide is the biggest killer of men under the age of 50. Three quarters of those who die by suicide in Scotland are men. Efforts to tackle stigma and a particular focus on how health services meet the needs of men, especially young men at risk, must be central to the new action plan. Any action plan to tackle suicide prevention can only be successful if it is backed up with the adequate resources, which means an end to cuts to local budgets and an end to austerity wherever it derives from. The decimation and rollback of services is heaping pressure on front-line staff and makes it more druthical for the signs of suicide to be spotted and taken seriously. The publication of last week's Scottish Suicide Information Database that goes into complete suicide had some contact with health services in the year before they die and that over a quarter have visited A&E within three months of their death. As a nation, we must invest more in front-line services with resources and training to ensure that staff have adequate support to spot the signs of those in need and provide the appropriate intervention. Finally, it is vitally important that any action plan contains proper reporting and evaluating mechanisms. In March this year, I raised a very issue in terms of the previous strategy during First Minister's questions. I was disappointed, I have to admit that this was not taken forward or had not been taken forward. The new action plan must have mechanisms that allow it to be robustly evaluated and monitored with clear lines of accountability and a commitment to resources too. With the current crisis in mental health, I expect that the Minister for Mental Health is making strong representations to the finance secretary ahead of the forthcoming budget. With a properly funded action plan and a focused effort to work collaboratively across services, we know that a reduction in the suicide rate can be achieved. I appeal to the Scottish Government that the forthcoming action plan will reflect the shared ambitions. I move the amendments in my name. Thank you very much. We now move to the open part of the debate. Brian Whittle I refer members to my entry in the register of members' interests, particularly to the fact that I am a registered mental health nurse holding current registration with the NMC and my honorary contract with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. As such, I particularly welcome this debate on suicide prevention in Scotland. Nearly a year ago to the day on 19 November 2016 we observed international men's day, the theme of which was male suicide. Usually, in this chamber, when we are debating gender inequality is about women who are the subject of most inequalities. However, when it comes to completed suicides, this is not the case. Of course, this is a multifaceted issue and it cannot be blamed on one particular factor. However, surely it cannot be denied that part of this problem may stem from society's patriarchal attitudes. Some still expect men and boys to play particular roles in order to have typical traits and behaviours. So-called real men are strong and they don't ever air their emotions except perhaps anger. We live in a society where it is still common for males rather than to talk about their feelings are told to be a man about it or to man up. As a mum of three boys, I've encouraged them to challenge the stereotypes and to express their emotions. I have been heartened in my recent visits to schools and my constituency of Rutherglen to see and hear how emotional literacy is being encouraged and taught in our schools. However, there can be no doubt that such gender-based attitudes can be damaging to men's mental health. In every single country bar one the male suicider rate is higher than that of females. In Scotland and in the UK as a whole there are three times the number of male suicides than female suicides. While women are more likely to attempt suicide on the whole, men use much more lethal means to self-harm and so have a much higher rate of completed suicide. It's the sad reality that everyone here today will probably know of a friend or a colleague or a family member who's been affected by male suicide. Evidence in the fact that it is the biggest single killer of men under the age of 45. The suicide rate in Scotland fell by 17 per cent over the last decade and I am pleased to hear that the Scottish Government is determined to reduce the incidents further. However, as any Government would attest to there is no simple fix for this problem. The fact remains that if we are to tackle the high male suicide rate men need to open up to how they feel and we must help and encourage them through this journey. Changing attitudes and challenging the stigma that still exists around mental illness won't solve this issue alone and Governments of course have a major role to play. As a mental health nurse I've seen our mental health services grow from being hospital centric and on the periphery of our NHS often hidden away on the edges of towns and cities to one that is now seen as a priority. With the introduction of mental health crisis teams out of our mental health services and liaison psychiatry based on our acute hospitals the Scottish Government are taking positive steps to tackle this issue and all of these services provide support and treatment to people who are experiencing thoughts of self-harm and suicide. Other programme brands like mental health first aid have equipped non-mental health staff with the skills and confidence to ask questions around thoughts of self-harm and suicidality and have given them the knowledge of how to respond to people experiencing thoughts of self-harm and suicide. We have made great strides in mental health care in recent years and the Scottish Government are continuing to take positive steps to tackle the issue. We have raised £150 million for the first time with its funding being increased by almost 40 per cent since 2006 and a further £150 million is being invested by the Scottish Government over the next five years to improve mental health services and to find better ways of working. As our Minister said in her speech a draft suicide prevention strategy will be released next year which is a major step forward but this does not mean that our health and social care professionals are waiting out, they use their professional skills to assess and manage risk and to help and care for those in mental distress. Any incidents of suicide is a tragedy and the effect on the person's loved ones, friends and work colleagues remains long after that person has died. We owe it to them to work together to find a way to reduce the number of suicides. Government and wider society must work together so our sons, our fathers, and friends are no longer taken from us in such devastating circumstances. Brian Whittle to be followed by Fulton MacGregor. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate on a subject that is not the easiest to discuss which is why it is so apt at the Mental Health Foundation Scotland to title it some mission time to talk about it and we in this Parliament have the responsibility to lead that conversation. I guess that it has already been mentioned that most of us in here have some connection or knowledge of those who have attempted suicide or have even sadly taken their own lives. I have to say that I coached a troubled young man a few years ago talented enough to meddle at the Scottish level who did manage to take his own life, apparently related to relationship issues. There was a national coach who to the outside world was highly, highly successful coached, well liked, who shocked us all when he managed to take his own life, apparently from a relationship related to. Even closer to home I have helped a close relative over a period of time get past attempting suicide to get back into living a more normal life. My detending psychiatry sessions, work sessions and assessments, liaising with police, getting this person sectioned and the subsequent reintroduction to normal home life. A positive outcome and a relief for all around us who care and love them. On all that of our deliberations, we need to be aware of the toll on family and friends of this terrible condition. The constant worry and anguish, the impact on personal family and working lives, the impact that supporting a person in this situation can have on our own mental health. It's a condition with a huge impact beyond the sufferers themselves, which is why one of the recommendations by Mental Health Foundation for Scotland where it talks about support for individuals directly impacted by suicide, particularly family and friends, is most welcome and resonates very strongly with me. Prevention is the topic today that we are addressing. I read that one of the key elements is talking about your feelings, keeping in touch, asking for help. We men, the strong and silent types, we don't do that, of course, because somehow speaking about our issues, somehow lessens us as men. We keep our mouths shut and we deal with it in silence and the result is that suicide rates for men are two and a half times that for females. It just may be about time that we need to park our egos chaps. Seriously, though, tackling the stigma associated with poor mental health, like this debate is doing, and creating an environment in which people are comfortable to open up and ask for help has to be the focus of all of our efforts. Of course, the areas where these communication channels and options are most challenging are the most deprived areas where the numbers are stark. In the most deprived areas, you are more than three times as likely to die by suicide than people living in the least deprived areas. Furthermore, it has been shown that the vast majority, around about 70 per cent of those who die by suicide, had some type of contact with healthcare services the year prior to their death. Now, a topic that I get into speeches at every opportunity, the importance of being active and eating well. Regular exercise can boost your self-esteem and help you to concentrate, sleep and feel better according to the mental health foundation. We go on to say that one of the most obvious yet unrecognised factors for mental health is good nutrition. If properly addressed and implemented, tackling diet on a busy day is intrinsically linked to tackling poor mental health as well as drinking sensibly. A topic that has been around this chamber recently and discussed at length. To further highlight this point, I have a poster in my office that says that food is the most abused anxiety drug exercise is the most underused antidepressant. That is borne out for me in the job with Job Scotland and it highlights the fact that it has a connection with SamH who co-fund that. I also wanted to mention the recommendation that you should do something that you are good at, and I love that. Part of the solution is to ensure that you have a connection with your family, so part of the solution is to ensure the opportunities to participate are widely available. Music and art and drama and physical activity, however engenders enthusiasm and self-esteem because that kind of feeling is entirely opposite to those displayed in those with poor mental health. Deputy Presiding Officer, we know all the stats. If you are a man living in an area of deprivation who has had recent contact with some kind of healthcare, you are at most risk of dying by suicide. We know who we should be targeting to have the highest prevention and success rate. We also know the steps that can be taken to help the situation. As has been stated by both SamH and the Mental Health Foundation of Scotland, inclusivity and activity, as well as eating well are essential elements for good mental health. It stands to reason that affording those opportunities to all, especially for those who are in the most vulnerable situations, is surely the most logical step so in conclusion, Deputy Presiding Officer, suicide is a devastated condition that affects so many more than just the suffering individual. However, we do know who is most at risk. We know where they are. We know the most likely to have a contact with healthcare professionals in the last 12 months. It's a classic Venn diagram. We also know the types of services that can be offered to help to prevent poor mental health from escalating. It just takes some joined-up thinking and a little bit of courage from the Government to do that. Fulton MacGregor, followed by Johann Lamont. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I'll take the opportunity to remind the chamber that I'm the parliamentary waves officer to the health secretary. It's clear to see that suicide prevention is a high priority for the Scottish Government with a new 10-year mental health strategy. It's good to see that the overall suicide rate has fallen by 17 per cent over the last decade, but we can always be doing more. It's vital that we continue to break down the barriers that we face across political parties, services and public and third sector organisations to ensure that support and help is offered to those who need it. We need to assess the multitude of reasons that lead someone to feeling so helpless. That could range from struggles with anxiety and depression, poverty, traumatic life events, bullying, domestic violence, addiction issues—indeed, the list is intricate and infinite. There is such a vast variety and multitude of reasons as to why they had no other solution than to take their own life. The good news is that the majority of suicides are preventable. I would also like to comment on the recent network rail initiative that was mentioned by the minister and I thought that that was very good. I also think that there is a lot to Monica Lennon's motion. There is no doubt that poverty and deprivation can impact on mental health and policies impact on poverty. I won't be the only MSP in the chamber today to have come across several situations where constituents have expressed how helpless they feel and how they have no options left often to do with recent welfare changes and their perceived treatment from the DWP particularly. People should not be able to feel or should not be made feel like nothing more than a burden due to those welfare cuts. It is heartbreaking and we must put an end to it. We must work together across this chamber and across parliaments of the UK and the world to put an end to it. Bullying is another reason and last week was anti-bullying week. My first member's debate in the chamber was to stand up to bullying campaign and we have heard the stats before about how suicide rates are higher in the LGBT community and many of us here across the chamber have signed up to the TIE campaign. Recently, I have been approached by a constituent who raised a heartbreaking case about her son who she alleges has experienced extreme bullying in his workplace on a football-based modern apprenticeship scheme. To the extent that he is now left with no other employment lined up and a severe drop in his mental health leading to suicidal thoughts and obviously causing a lot of distress to him and his family. I cannot go into the details of that case of course but I will be taking the matter up for the young person and his family with the stakeholders involved. That example does highlight bullying in another context and the effects that it can have and it also highlights, as others have said, clearly how vulnerable young men are in particular and this is a group that we really need to get the message out to encourage them to open up and talk about their feelings. One organisation in my local constituency that does that I should say that they were previously based in my local constituency, Chrissie's house and they are now based on the south side of the AMA boundary in Clare Adamson's mother won't wish her constituency. Their premise is to set up and offer a safe environment where people in crisis may have respite from their current unwellness. The aims of the charity which is the first of its kind in Scotland is to offer a 24-hour non-medical centre providing intervention and assistance surrounding suicide and to reduce the number of people dying by suicide and to support those affected by suicide and reduce the stigma and the taboo. The motto of Chrissie's house is let's talk and on referral to the charity each guest will be assigned a volunteer who will work to develop a strong rapport with the guest to help them through their crisis and support them to counter depression negative thoughts and to help exchange reasons for dying with reasons for living. We tackle this every day each and every day in early on and I believe that that starts in our schools. Research undertaken by Sam H shows a learning way that an average of three children in any one classroom will have experienced a mental health problem by the time they are 16 years of age and while we cannot always prevent any one individual from developing mental illness we need to ensure that from as early as possible support is there and easily access when needed. I believe that we need to do more in the classroom to be aware of their mental health needs. I particularly like the nurturing approach which has been adopted much more readily within schools and I'd like to mention holistic life who have met me to look to do some work within my constituency area. Before I finish, Presiding Officer, because I can see my time is running out, I would just like to mention very very quickly the Coatbridge youth forum having recently established the sound minds project which will help young people in Coatbridge to be able to talk about mental health and pay tribute to the great work of the two local MSYPs, Ryan Caley and Jack Campbell, who have done a lot of work in this area and who have recently brought forward the proposal to the North Lancer Youth Council that everyone who works with a young person should have some form of mental health training which I would completely agree with. I support the motion and the amendments. Johann Lamont, followed by Kenneth Gibson. Thank you very much Deputy Presiding Officer. It's a privilege to participate in this debate about what is a difficult and challenging issue. At the outset, I thank all those organisations who provided briefings for the debate and who continue to do so much work across our communities to support not just vulnerable people but families who are trying to support those who are at risk of suicide. I am sure that there cannot be many in this chamber who are untouched by the terrible sadness of suicide. We probably all know of someone in our family amongst our friends or in our communities who have had to deal with the shock and tragedy of suicide. No one in here is indifferent to its causes and its consequences. We are united in a desire to do all that we can to tackle the suffering that may lead to suicide. We do collectively want to do what we can to understand what drives people to suicide, to understand how we might better support people in crisis, to recognise that each person at risk of suicide will have made their own journey, will have their unique story, and to understand the challenge of creating support that matches those unique experiences. So, while we struggle to recognise the scale of the problem and to understand its implications, I think that we are also driven by the profound sense of sadness when it is clear that a suicide could have been prevented when someone reached out for help and either did not get that help or got the wrong kind of help. In my short periods in the Public Petitions Committee I was driven by the experience of those who have lost a loved one and the profound sense of loss that they have compounded by the feeling that it did not need to be that way. The importance of understanding those direct experiences in shaping policy cannot be overstated. We have had a progress in attitudes. In my generation the silence and shame and stigma of suicide was all too evident and we do now see that people begin to understand how someone might be at risk and that it is not the shame of the family who are living with the consequence but that those people deserve support. There is evidence that we are opening up about this issue but we know a great deal more needs to be done. The network rail advert in sport of Samaritans the idea that we individually can do something is a very powerful message. Last night I watched a channel 4 documentary on 999 Emergency and it was highlighting the experience of our police forces in having to deal with people who had mental health issues who ended up inappropriately in the justice system because there was nowhere else to go. That gave me two messages. First of all, the issue around mental health and suicide is not unique to Scotland. It is something that goes far beyond Scotland but the challenge of delivering support is also one that is experienced here in Scotland and beyond. We know the risk to young men and that must be a challenge. We see an increasing perhaps of young women who are self-harming and potentially may take their own lives. We know the impact of postnatal depression and the challenge of making sure that the right supports can be there. My colleague Monica Lennon rightly highlighted the impact of poverty and disadvantage in increasing the prevalence of suicide and also the experience of those with addictions. I note for the minister one figure, which is the high prevalence of suicide among those whose addiction is engambling and it is very often an experience that is not properly recognised in terms of support. To be clear, I do not lay at the door of the Scottish Government direct responsibility for those tragic deaths, for its causes or its consequences but it does have a responsibility to do all it can to get in place the strategies, the systems, the actions that will result in individuals being helped, not abandoned. At a community level, there are concerns. Is it right that a young person seeking help from a GP for a physical condition can be referred to a consultant but a young person seeking help with depression must refer themselves when they may be distressed and not able to take that step? Can it be right that GPs may have the capacity to prescribe drugs but do not have the time to spend at greater length to talk to somebody about how they are feeling and there is a particular issue in our poorest communities, as highlighted by GPs themselves. For the truth is that any strategy must be backed up by an allocation of sufficient resources to match what we say with an honest assessment of need. We know the importance of early intervention and yet support is being stripped out of our schools, out of the support that the voluntary sector might be able to deliver. We know the pressure that it is under and we know the pressure on local authority spending cuts. We need to think about the consequences of those choices and look again. I do, in conclusion, ask of the Government. If we are spending money in one place, we cannot spend it elsewhere. We need to test spending against how it supports the most vulnerable and most at risk in our communities. Any equality budging strategy worth its salt must ensure that resources truly follows need. What representations the minister has made directly to the finance secretary to ensure that sufficient resources are being put in place? We cannot separate off the cold numbers in a budget line from the lived reality of those supporting those who are most at risk and those at risk of seeking help. There is a clear consensus on the issues in here. I would like to see a commitment to the tough budgeting choices to match that concern. It is important for the minister to outline what her expectation is of the budget to make sure that we can match our united commitment to those who are most at risk to make sure that we can support them when they look for that help. Kenneth Gibson, followed by Alison Johnstone. I am pleased to speak today on an issue that is so important to Scotland. I brought the subject to the chamber with a question about the steps being taken to reduce the number of suicides in Scotland in August 1999. Upon receiving an answer, I was shocked to discover that more deaths of males under 35 the preceding year were due to suicide 268 that were caused by motor vehicle accidents and drugs combined. In 2016, according to Scottish Public Health Observatory, suicide Scotland overview 2017, 148 males under 35 committed suicide in 2016. A huge reduction of 18 years but still far too many. While a great deal of progress has been made since 1999, suicide prevention remains an on-going struggle with a long-term impact. The Scottish Government's suicide prevention strategy 2013-16 identified key areas for action such as responding to people in distress and talking about suicide. I never feel comfortable discussing human lives in terms of statistics. Nevertheless, they help to demonstrate to the extent of the problem and identify groups or individuals who may be at higher risk than others. Based on five-year rolling average, as we have heard from other colleagues, the suicide rate in Scotland fell by 17% over the decade to 2016. However, the latest figures confirm that there were 720 suicides raised in Scotland that year compared to 672 the year before. 21 of last year's tragedies occurred in North Ayrshire. In 2012-2016, the suicide rate was more than two and a half times higher in the most deprived decile of the population compared to the least deprived. Many colleagues again have commented on this in some depth. It is true that money cannot buy happiness but distinct lack thereof can put a mainstream on everyday life. It is important to understand which population groups are at risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviours that harm themselves. The suicide rate for males is more than two and a half times that for females and has been the case for years. I am sure that we have all heard the phrase boys don't cry and Claire Hockey touched on this too. Societal norms suggest that boys should not be seen crying or appear vulnerable in general. An entire gender should be raised with an inbuilt instinct to unhealthfully bottle up and suppress their emotions. It is regressive and I am glad to see this attitude. Society is gradually warming to the idea of bringing the discussion of so-called toxic masculinity into the public domain. There are still many men who are reluctant to discuss their innermost emotions and fears with even those they are closest to and I myself fall into this category I must confess. Research has shown that cultural pressure for men to appear stoic and self-like may result in them being less likely to seek the advice of a healthcare professional for the proof that the stifling of emotional emotion can be extremely detrimental to the mental health of some individuals. In the same way, regardless of the aforementioned influencing factors, simply saying, I am fine as we push negative thoughts to the back of our minds as opposed to facing and processing them might feel like the easiest thing to do. In many cases when we feel we cannot cope it is almost ingrained in us to keep going in order to avoid what may be seen or perceived as failure, a failure to cope or be strong. However, through increased public discussion surrounding the importance of mental wellbeing and suicide prevention it is hoped that any negative connotations that come with asking for help can be eradicated for most people at least. Fortunately, negative thoughts do not spiral into depression and contemplation of suicide in the vast majority of people. Nevertheless, every suicide is one too many. Is it for paramount that we continue to strive towards preventing as many people as possible, both as a Government and as a society in general, during their own lives? Altering how vulnerable people think and behave about suicide is complex and necessitates a range of actions and approaches. Crucial to this is the co-ordination and delivery of efforts at both national and local levels, not least to diminish the methods at which people can kill themselves and need access to them, which much work was done on in the decade before last. I am pleased that North Ayrshire Health and Social Care partnership, like many have, has promoted the national suicide prevention strategy over the last year through its Choose Life partnership, a group that also works closely alongside charities, the NHS and Police Scotland to better promote prevention strategies and provide available support. It is also important to recognise that incomparable and vital work carried out by many helplines and support networks across the country such as Choose Life, Samaritans, Breathing Space, Copeline and Touched by Suicide to name just a few. Those organisations work tirelessly to support those affected by suicide be it directly or indirectly. In addition, NHS Scotland's 2016 Read Between the Lines campaign brought suicide awareness further into the public domain, this time by illustrating the merits of the simple art of conversation highlighting the need to take all signs of distress seriously, as you tend to know when a friend, family member or colleague isn't quite themselves. Sometimes all it takes to turn on a light in the dark is a question, providing the massive relief that comes with the ability to open up to someone. The reality is that behind each and every suicide is a person with a story that ended too soon, whose death will have a long-term devastating impact on those left behind. My great-grandmother drowning herself in Ireland was the reason why my grandmother while still a baby was moved to Scotland and adopted. But that's another story. Suicide is not inevitable as preventable. Nobody wakes up deciding to commit suicide out of the blue. The road is often long, painful and the reasons complex. The Scottish Government will continue to recognise suicide awareness and prevention as a public health priority, although I find it difficult myself. I encourage those who can do so to speak openly about mental health and support one another in our communities as if we listen closely to each other and take action at an early stage, many lives will undoubtedly be saved. I call Alison Johnson to be followed by Alex Cole-Hamilton. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. We're all very conscious this afternoon that we've recently seen the first increase in deaths by suicide in the last six years. It goes to show that we must never be complacent and we can't accept any suggestion that suicide is not preventable. Like others in this chamber, I'm concerned that the previous suicide prevention strategy ended in 2016 and the minister's intentions to develop public engagement around the action plan does indicate that we're still in early stages. I'm concerned too that the minister's motion didn't mention self-harm at all. We've seen a very worrying increase in self-harm among young people and among young girls in particular. The growing up in Scotland survey shows that almost a quarter of young women have self-harmed. I raised this issue when the minister delivered a statement on the mental health strategy and was told that self-harm would be addressed in the forthcoming suicide reduction strategy and I would ask the minister to expand on the level of self-harm that we see among young people. Providing appropriate support at an early stage is crucial. I'm very proud that the Scottish Young Greens have just launched a national campaign, Healthy Mind's Healthy Students, calling for every pupil to receive good quality mental health education in school and the Government has agreed to review personal and social education and mental health support so the time is right to ensure that we provide robust support for good mental health for all our students and young people. We can't overlook the fundamental impact inequalities of wealth, power and opportunity have on our mental health. We can't shy away from this. We've seen a real increase in the incidence of mental health problems particularly among children and young people. It's no coincidence that mental distress has risen alongside a programme of austerity, welfare reform, wage stagnation and insecure employment and I agree with the points raised in Monica Lennon's amendment. There is a clear link between mental health problems, suicide and socioeconomic disadvantage. It shames us all that the suicide rate in Scotland is three times higher in the most deprived communities. Poverty, shame, stress and anxiety related to material deprivation play no small part in that. There is a generation in Scotland who have experienced compounded hardships from de-industrialisation to a lack of investment in good quality housing to austerity and to social security cuts that go on today. They shouldn't be let down even further by threadbare services. The adult psychiatric and morbidity survey in England found that over 40 per cent of people who receive ESA have attempted to commit suicide. Many people who receive ESA will do so because they have significant mental health problems and require on-going support but those statistics indicate what a group of people can be. They are entitled to social security support and every cut to that support jeopardises their wellbeing. Benjamin Barr, if Liverpool University, led research on the impact that disability assessments had on people's mental health in England and found that the work capability assessment was linked to almost 600 additional suicides and called on the Department of Work and Pensions to release that data. That emphasises the real need in Scotland, which truly treats people with dignity and respect and I'd be glad if the minister could tell me how work to reduce suicide and self-harm will be integrated with the new social security agency and how it will support vulnerable groups. Research by LGBT Youth Scotland sampled over 600 people and found that half of LGBT young people reported suicidal thoughts or actions and that increases to 63 per cent amongst trans young people. LGBT Youth Scotland's front-line workers deal with severe mental health issues and suicidal ideation on a regular basis. Their previous research showed poor health amongst LGBT young people is closely related to bullying, stigma and fear of rejection from family and friends. It's unacceptable that any young person in Scotland should feel this level of distress and horrifying that suicidal ideation is so high among LGBT young people in particular. The strategy must have a thorough equalities impact assessment, accounting of the needs to reach particular groups in different ways and provide bespoke support. The equality impact on the mental health strategy didn't mention race or ethnicity at all. It can't be missing from this. The Red Cross highlighted that asylum seekers are at very great risk of suicidal ideation. The trauma they fled, the painful separation from family members, many asylum seekers and refugees are left with nothing by a system that fails to support them, which is in fact designed in the Prime Minister's own words to create a hostile environment. It's little wonder that people experience mental distress and I would ask the minister how her strategy and other work led by the mental health directorate will support the mental health of asylum seekers, refugees and people with no recourse to public funds. Our mental health support must reach everyone and especially the most vulnerable. The Prime Minister reminded us with her new past the badge campaign that we all have mental health, so it's okay to start talking about it. Alex Cole-Hamilton, followed by James Dornan. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Suicide isn't a crime, it's a choice, and for over 700 people in any given year in Scotland, it represents the only choice, that last vestige of control that they, in some cases, have left to them. I'm under the right of someone to make such a decision, but with all that I have, I would wish that we could provide support enough that there were always a better choice for them to make. Suicide is an option that, for some, no intervention will prevent, but we have to recognise that many of those lost to us may have chosen a different path if they had only received help when they first needed it. I welcome this debate today and I want to thank in particular Minister for her effort last week to foster a spirit of consensus around the motion in her name today. Suicide is absolutely one of those issues around which we should coalesce, which we should strip out any kind of partisan alignment and always seek agreement. While we support the Government's motion and the amendments therein, we cannot allow our efforts to be undermined by complacency, which I would have asked Maureen Watt to explain in my intervention that we failed to recognise that, on this issue, we are falling behind. I use the term complacency because, while it speaks to suicide as a national trend, which has thankfully dropped since the introduction of choose life, it makes no mention of the 8 per cent rise in suicide rates last year, which James Jopling, who is the director of Samaritans in Scotland described as a troubling early warning sign. As we have heard, there is no mention of self-harm in this motion because the two are inexorably linked. This Government's efforts to tackle our mental health crisis through the national mental health strategy were delayed by over a year and when published were met with tepid enthusiasm from stakeholders. I do not think that it is unfair to ask for better of the equally delayed national suicide strategy. As we have heard, the human cost of this is staggering. It tears a rent through families and through communities. Whilst it is classless, it is far more likely in areas of deprivation. Whilst it is ageless, it seems to take the young more than the old and, while it is indiscriminate of gender, it is far more common in men. Indeed, it is as we have heard, the principal cause of death in men under the age of 50, outstripping cancer and cardiac arrest. It is widely known that that can be a result of a cultural reality where men tend to bottle things up or are not always taught to share, but that is not the whole picture because many do seek help, but what is available to them, if it is available, just isn't enough. Whilst, undoubtedly, many men and women choose to take their lives without any prior suggestion that they were in difficulty, many more do come forward for help. 70 per cent of those who take their own life are at a point in the year before they did so. A quarter had been through A&E within three months of their death and 60 per cent had a mental health prescription prescribed to them in the past year. Many of those people are not known to us. They are coming forward but aren't getting the help that they need. What needs to change? We need to get it right earlier and I was gratified to hear the call of Sam H to radically invest in CAMHS support, train teachers to recognise mental health issues in their classrooms and equip their schools with properly trained school councillors. We need to replicate that across colleges and universities. We need to better respond to the reality in our surgeries that a quarter of GP appointments are made as a result of an underlying mental health condition. Those are tragedies that stalk homes and streets of every community in our nation. We may have seen first-hand the cost of our failure and that will haunt me until the end of my days. I wish to use all of the days that I have left to me in this place to see us answer that failure. The English novelist Sally Brampton wrote, We don't kill ourselves. We are simply defeated by the long, hard struggle to stay alive. We make many decisions in this place to help people to stay alive with ailments of the body. We just don't seem to be as good at it as helping people through that hidden endurance of mental ill health. For the consensus, as the Government seeks to build on how tragic and unbelievably desperate this issue is and how much we need unanimity around a solution, I give them thanks for that and we will agree to support them in this motion tonight. We will continue to challenge them when we find them wanting the answer to this fundamental issue in the whole of our society. James Dornan, followed by Finlay Carson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. As a person who has gone through the trauma of poor acute mental health and at one stage made a cry for help attempt a long time ago to be fair, I have some idea of what goes through the mind of a human being who feels so broken that they see their only way out as becoming a victim of suicide. Depression, stress and anxiety can become so crippling that everyday tasks become an uphill battle. For many, even climbing out of bed everyday is a struggle and those suffering are robbed of hope and joy. It's like a black cloud which envelops around your very existence. Earlier this year I wrote an article about my own battles with depression and was inundated with offers of support and stories from others who face horrendous battles and even some have been fortunate enough to survive suicide and get the support they so desperately need. I was also touched by the amount of people who said that my story was their story and their persistence and for that I am eternally grateful. There's sadly too many who don't survive the horrors of poor mental health and that's why this debate is so vitally important. I'm sure I'm not alone in this chamber when I say that people extremely close to me have seen for themselves as Alec Hamilton just said, seen for themselves a result of what can happen when somebody gets to that awful point. Heartling is to see a drop of 17% of suicide rates over the last decade. We still have to examine every avenue of that number to drop further and that's why I'm pleased to see the Scottish Government's placing such a high priority on mental health and suicide prevention. I'm glad to see that the suicide rates did drop in the last decade. However I was deeply troubled if not surprised to see that suicide rates among men is still two and a half times that of women. Every death that happens at the hands of suicide is a travesty but it's clear with a very specific job to do with men. It took me years to open up about my own illness and I had this misconception that it was my job to be better than that or to save face in front of friends or colleagues so I said nothing. I'd imagine many men across Scotland are doing the same thing. There are organisations which are trying to tackle this breathing space Scotland have worked with several football clubs and organisations. High profile players have reached out to men across football and they did men across Scotland to try and remove the stigma attached to mental health and to show men that it's actually important to talk. Simple conversation with the right person can be all that's needed to save a life or at least the start of a recovery journey and it's why I'm so pleased to see talking about suicide as one of the Government's key themes. Language around mental health is also a barrier in reaching out to those who could be suffering, especially around males. As my colleague Claire Hawke said earlier on I absolutely despise the phrase man up when someone expresses the emotions of anxiety or depression. It's a well used phrase if someone had a broken leg you wouldn't make them walk in it and it's true that if a man has a scar, a physical scar a scar that the human eye can see then it seems acceptable for them to take time out get physio and recover at their own pace. A mental scar however can be quite a different ballgame. Many are told to pull themselves together or indeed can be self-critical dismissing their own emotions and telling themselves that they need to give themselves a shake. Well I'm not a psychologist not enough to say that by ignoring mental illness the results will manifest in the same way as other physical illnesses in other words it's very unlikely to self-heal which of course can mean that illness gets progressively worse and tragically can result in suicide. I know a young woman who's been seen by an expert team at CAMHS the young woman had several physical and emotional health issues she'd cut her arms and legs with knives and attempted to kill herself she was referred to CAMHS and after several months of caring therapy I'm delighted to report that this young lady is almost unrecognisable not only does she have better mental health she's been given many strategies in order to cope with all that life throws at her this world moves at a much faster pace than when I was young and I'm pleased and thankful that it was such brilliant team supporting our future as they navigate such difficult times providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, providing, clinicians这是 a number of people who are hearing sadly struggling even more due to de вашcus and life crippling cuts in the benefit system I say that coming to the end of my time and often sounding off. I would just like to finish off by saying I am delighted that the numbers of people who are losing their life to suicide is falling. More important is that I welcome the Scottish Government's suicide prevention strategy and action plan. As part of that plan key aspects we'll be responding to people in distress and talking about suicide and mental health being in that situation. As an elected member and our community one that any of my constituents feel completely alone oedd ma sy'n ddoch yn gweld diwyddo. Ddidd氣wyr sy'n dda, dypa, rwy'r fath o'i ddull fynd i ddweud yr oedd mae gweithio'r dysgu i'r bod phoellu ddechrau fel mewn meddwl, a hynny, fel ddelych, i'r bod yn gweithio gyda fi. Finlare Carson, ddim ffolledd fel Willie Coffey. The headlines on Tuesday, 1 February 2016 read that a rising young rugby star has been Rygwbwch Sarr has been found dead just days before being named, just after being named man of the match in a game that saw his team crowned league champions. The Stewards Rugby Club player had been celebrating winning the BT West division 2 championship with his team only 72 hours later. The 22-year-old who has come up through the ranks at the club scored two tries in his club win over Cumbernauld. He was named man in the match and found dead by his mum and dad on the family farm near Gate Tys of Fleet. Scott Carson was discovered by his mum and dad. It's understood that he took his own life. Scott wasn't a statistic. He wasn't a target to be met. Scott was John and Helen's son. Rossi's brother, my cousin's son, was a good friend of my son and daughter and many lads and lassies in the Stuartry. Everybody was shocked. It came as a huge surprise. Nobody could believe it because he never talked about it. This might be a story very personal to me and to my family and Scott's friends, but it's a story replicated across the country far, far too often and far too often involving young men in rural areas. It's rural society that I wanted to talk to about in my contribution. Many factors put individuals at risk of suicide, with four key groups of risk and pressures identified. Risk and pressures within society, including poverty and inequality, access to methods of suicide. Risk and pressures within communities, including neighbourhood deprivation, social exclusion, isolation and inadequate access to local services. Risks and pressures for individuals including social demographic characteristics, lack of care, treatment and lack of support towards recovery from serious mental illness. Quality of response from services, including insufficient identification of those at risk. Not just one of those risk factors, not just two but all of those risk factors are present in rural areas. The days and hours after Scott's death, his teammates met often and talked about their feelings, not something that tough farmers and rugby players do, but they did. In a relatively small group, a surprising and significant number admitted to have suffered from different levels of mental health issues. Some had sought support and received medication, others professional intervention but the majority had never spoken about it before or considered that they should even seek help. This is a great concern and it's important that we create a culture where talking about mental health issues is no different from talking about a sprained ankle or a stomach bug. Many young people working in agriculture fall into the categories that I have already mentioned. Agriculture is an industry that suffers more than most from the stigma attached to mental health. To make matters worse, there is an additional challenge of diagnosis and treatment. Life in the countryside creates diverse worries for young people, often missed by other campaigns. Farming is a 27-day job that is hard to switch off from. Rural areas are often isolated, lacking public transport and accessibility to sport and recreation. Self-employed farmers are not eligible for statutory sick pay, putting people on lower incomes under more pressure to continue working when they should seek help. Access to treatment, particularly specialist health professionals, can involve long journeys, increase in anxiety and worry, and now, with the GP recruitment crisis, even getting a doctor's appointment can be difficult. That is why the Scottish Association of Young Farmers, the leading youth organisation with more than 3,500 members in Scotland, has chosen to encourage the conversation and break the stigma surrounding mental health wellbeing by launching RUOK—U as in EWE. It recognises about looking after each other and that an early intervention can be as easy as asking RUOK to be listened. The aim is specifically targeted at the audience of young people living in Scotland's rural communities through raising awareness of poor mental health and the triggers and the causes and how, most importantly, to recognise those signs and how to seek help if others are suffering. They have teamed up with Sammy H, who now offers sessions for their clubs, wishing to gain a basic understanding of mental health and wellbeing. They share stories of mental health experiences online and they invest in training for their office bearers to recognise and understand and be able to sign post help to those who have a mental health condition. Back with the rugby team, they are ideally placed to help the young men who are only off-farm activities off from rugby. They are in a positive position to provide support and advice as bodies or simply by sign post and services. It could be life-saving just to have that intervention because stress and anxiety can lead to suicide without any visible signs. The student rugby team coach, NFU Scotland and the local health and wellbeing project coordinator are currently working together to deliver a mental health wellbeing project, which will assist in making it more commonplace for men and women from the youngest to the veterans in the club to recognise mental wellbeing as a huge part in the overall wellbeing, performance and fitness of the individual. Taking advice and examples from our suspicious professional colleagues at Glasgow Warriors, they hope to incorporate day-to-day mental health and training in the same way as physical health and as a result to rid rugby of the stigma that has played a sad part in the death of one of their teammates. Hopefully, a model that can be rolled out across organisations in Scotland. It is with great concern that a new action plan will not be published until spring 2018, but that should not be an excuse for failure to progress with collaborative working with groups who are in a positive position to take action now to avoid more suicides. The last of the open debate contributions is from Willie Coffey. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I think that we have to be grateful for that contribution, that personal contribution there from Finlay Carson. Presiding Officer, thank you and I appreciate the opportunity to make a contribution to this important debate. Colleagues across the chamber today have rightly focused on the good work that has been done in the past, is currently being done and what could and should be done to try and help to further reduce suicide numbers in Scotland. All good contributions in all heartfelt. We have good strategies in place supported by dedicated staff and a number of disciplines and good investment to call on to try and help us to support people at risk, but is it enough? Do we need more money or more resources? Or is there something else that is needed that might still be missing from everything that we are doing? I have permission from a local family to tell you Jenna's story. I think that when you hear it, you might agree that something is still missing that might allow us to intervene and help to save lives, especially young lives. Only four years ago, Jenna was 13 and was a very bright, beautiful, intelligent and compassionate young girl. She had been having problems both at school and out of it, probably bullying and I have to say probably because it was never established, accepted or verified that this was the cause. She told her mother about what was happening to her to make her feel so sad, but by that time it was too late. Less than 48 hours later, Jenna sadly took her own life. The signs in the discussion with her mother didn't immediately make her think that her life was at risk. She had been self-harming, but the advice that her mother got was that this rarely led to suicide and it would be months before she would be able to see Jenna be professionally who could try and help. Oh, how her mother now wishes she had acted, she had acted on that. With Jenna's life cut so short, the devastation that her family has to deal with is now life-along for them and the pain endures with every day that passes. The questions have all been asked time and time again. What could have been done to help pull Jenna back from the brink? We had plans in place then, we had anti-bullying strategies, mental health support, counselling service all in place, but all failed Jenna and her family. In speaking to Jenna's mother last night in asking those direct questions, what are the key things that have to happen to give people, especially youngsters like Jenna, a chance to hold on? She said that quick action when any signs are spotted and sustained support and counselling was vital. Recognition that bullying is a major cause of anxiety and depression in young people and more so now on social media. Accountability and being seen to act to protect the victims, especially in particularly in school settings. Youngsters being bullied have often found themselves moving schools to get away from bullying. Surely that cannot be right. Some of Jenna's mother's suggestions chime with the Mental Health Foundation's 12-point plan and I am sure that we are all grateful to have received that in time for today's debate. My message to the ministerial team who is working very hard on the issue is to listen to Jenna's family and back up the plan and strategies with actions such as those and interventions and make them available as quickly as possible. I will close my contribution with a quote from Jenna's mother, Pauline, who said, This Saturday should have been the day that I celebrate my beautiful, intelligent, compassionate daughter's 18th birthday. But I can't, because on 11 June 2013, Jenna Murray, my little girl aged 13, waved and smiled as she walked home from school to end her precious life. Jenna's story is possibly not unique, but her legacy is that her family have honoured her memory and set up a charity in her name, beautiful inside and out, to work tirelessly to intervene quickly when called upon to help and find counselling support for other youngsters and their families who are struggling. It is working and it is saving lives. Let's all hope that our work in this area saves even more lives from the tragedy of suicide. We now move to the closing speeches. I call Colin Smyth around six minutes, please, Mr Smyth. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It's a privilege to speak at a debate on such an important issue, which has stimulated so many thoughtful contributions. Speaker after speaker, I have rightly highlighted that behind each of the more than 6,000 deaths from suicide in Scotland since 2009 are individuals, their families and their friends who have suffered a devastating, unimaginable loss. Although the Government's motion today highlights the positive fact that there has been a 17 per cent reduction in suicides in the past decade, Annie Wells and Alex Cole-Hamilton rightly refer to the fact that last year there was a rise of 8 per cent in the number of people taking their own life. The first increase for six years. Annie Wells rightly highlighted that with the Scottish Government's current suicide prevention strategy, which expired in 2016, the need for the Government to consult and bring forward plans for a new suicide prevention strategy was crucial. As Johann Lamont highlighted so powerfully, a critical part of that new strategy needs to be the availability and accessibility of the right mental health treatment. It is just not acceptable that a quarter of adults requiring mental health treatment have to wait more than 18 weeks for that treatment and in many areas the treatment options are limited. Staff are under increasing amounts of pressure and many areas are struggling to recruit key posts. There are vacancies in 9 per cent of psychiatric consulting posts, 8 per cent of clinical psychology posts and 4.4 per cent of mental health nursing posts. Johann Lamont was also right to stress that the forthcoming Government budget must ensure that our mental health services of the resources and the staff that are required to meet demand and deliver the right treatment people require. As several members highlighted more broadly, those working across health and social care services must be provided with the necessary training on suicide and mental health. I would like to echo calls by the Scottish Association for Mental Health for Allied Health Professionals to receive suicide prevention training. There is also a need for improvements in communication and co-operation between different healthcare sectors. Again, our support calls by SAMH to introduce a national Scottish crisis care agreement between statutory emergency and non-statutory sectors, which works to develop clear pathways. However, we must also look beyond healthcare services and expand other organisations' ability to intervene effectively to help those at risk of suicide. I therefore welcome the work that has been done by the Scottish Government to promote applied suicide intervention skills training or assist. The Government's review found assist to be effective on a number of levels. Training of this kind should be made more widely available and, in particular, it should be provided for those working across our education system. Indeed, the role of education and suicide prevention is fundamental, as Fulton MacGregor highlighted in his contribution. Research has shown that half of all adults with mental health conditions say that their condition started before the age of 14. Early intervention and the promotion of lifelong mental health must be at the heart of any truly preventative approach. Those who are working on all levels of education should have a strong understanding of mental health and suicide, and we must guarantee access to a qualified councillor in every high school in Scotland. While suicide hits all of Scotland's communities, and Maureen Watt was correct when she said that there is rarely any single cause, we know that it impacts on certain groups disproportionately. As Clare Hockey, Brian Whittle and others highlighted, the suicide rate among men is more than two and a half times that for females. Between 2009 and 2015, 73 per cent of those who took their own lives were men. Men who died from suicide were found to be at the least likely to have had prior contact with healthcare services than women by a 21 per cent gap. There remain serious barriers preventing men from accessing the mental health care that they urgently need, and bringing forward the cultural and structural changes that need to address his inequality must be part of any new strategy. James Dornan in his very personal contribution highlighted that efforts to destigmatise mental health need to recognise the key role played by gender and work to tackle the harmful gender stereotypes that prevent men from seeking the help that they need. Likewise, healthcare services must do more to ensure that men at risk of suicide receive the treatment and support that they need. I would also like to voice support for Sam H Colfer's integrated joint boards to commission evidence-based gender-sensitive services to tackle these inequalities that are faced by men and those in areas of deprivation. We cannot discuss suicide prevention without discussing the need to tackle poverty and inequality. As Monica Lennon said, the recent Scottish suicide information database report highlighted that suicide deaths are three times more likely among those in the most deprived areas compared to those living in the least deprived areas. Those figures reflect in the clearest, most devastating, in terms of the human cost of inequality. The recent Samaritan's report, Dying from Inequality, stated that there is an overwhelming evidence of a strong link between socioeconomic disadvantage and suicidal behaviour. It highlights that low-income, job and security zero is contracts, unmanagable debt and poor housing increase the risk of suicide. Presiding Officer, the forthcoming suicide prevention strategy must put at its heart that if we are to tackle this health inequality, we need to tackle wealth inequality. Finlay Carson highlighted another inequality and rightly talked about the impact connectivity and isolation that has on suicide with the very personal case of Stuart Shrugby player Scott Carson. The recent Scottish suicide information database report highlighted that those rural areas have a higher-than-average rate of suicide. Very small remote towns had the highest rates of any area, and accessible small towns in rural areas both had lower rates than their remote or very remote counterparts. On an individual level, isolation also appears to play a role with 71 per cent of those who died from suicide reported as single, widowed or divorced at the time of their death. I hope that we will soon see the publication of the Government's promise strategy on loneliness, which I hope will also include options such as social prescribing. Presiding Officer, in concluding today's debate, it has highlighted how complex suicide is, whether it is the issue of self-harm highlighted in the very personal case that Willie Coffey set out and Alison Johnstone or to the impact of deprivation highlighted by Monica Lennon and others. However, the chamber today has very much united behind the need for the new strategy to be set out by the Government to have clear priorities, and I am sure that everyone will get behind that strategy. I want to start by adding my voice to the united message that this whole Parliament can take and must send out today that every suicide, which is a tragedy for the individual involved, their family, friends and society more widely, is preventable. All of us across all parties are committed to working towards a situation in which a death from suicide is reduced and minimised, and ultimately never happens. All of us across the chamber have the best possible health and support services that have the suicidal needs, and their families need to be accessed by services as easily and early as possible. My colleague Annie Wells highlighted recent statistics from the National Records of Scotland, which shows that suicides have risen for the first time in six years. We must make sure that this is a one-off, not a trend. Alison Johnstone told us about the suicide right rising and the previous strategy expiring in 2016, and a new suicide prevention strategy is long overdue. It is for ministers to respond to the criticism that we have made that the current suicide prevention strategy ran out last year and is yet not in place, and we need that sooner rather than later. Throughout the debate, the importance of local suicide prevention work at a local level has been mentioned by my colleagues in the debate. Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50 in the UK. It is right that people such as Claire Hockey, Brian Whittle and Kenneth Gibson have said that we need to tackle the stigma, particularly among men, of not being able to talk about it. It is not right that we say, man up, or men should never cry. That is unacceptable in 21st century Scotland. There are excellent examples of voluntary services working with men across Scotland, including the men's shed in my region in Musselborough, that respond to men's needs for coming together to be able to talk about what goes on in their lives and an opportunity to work through those issues. It is not only men—women also need opportunities to be able to talk. I know that ministers visited the general project here in Edinburgh, which works with ladies with post-natal depression, which is an issue that is too often hidden and that society is not willing to talk about it. I urge the Scottish Government to act on the Samaritan Scotland cause to increase support for local suicide prevention work, providing resources and leadership. I agree with Fulton MacGregor and Alex Cole-Hamilton that we need to see far more done to tackle the milder, moderate mental health problems that are conventionally developed into more serious conditions and suicidal tendencies. If people present them with the initial problem fail to access the right treatment and support, or fail to get it because of long delays, they are then more likely to go on and try to commit suicide. Society is now the leading cause of death in teenage girls worldwide, and the rate of suicide in 15 to 24-year-olds in Scotland has risen over the past three years. I am sure that we have all been moved by the contribution by Willie Coffey, and we wish the best to his constituents' family as they go on raising money and telling the story. Education on mental and emotional wellbeing can act as prevention, and early prevention needs to be required. The Scottish Youth Parliament has provided helpful research in that area. The Scottish Conservatives will expand mental health education in schools, so that people can know that there is support available at the earliest possible time, and there are people that they know within their area that they can talk about. Finlay Carson has spoken about particular issues in rural Scotland, and I would be interested to hear what the minister has to say in regard to that. Today, we have heard heartbreaking stories of suicide, families, societies and communities affected. We must look to see how we can give the right support to prevent this. While we can expect some year-on-year fluctuations, we cannot ignore any rise in deaths in 2016, but we suggest that there is a direct correlation between a robust suicide prevention strategy and the number of deaths from suicide. I urge the Government to push ahead with the new strategy, working in partnership with key partners, including the third sector, to develop a plan that enables people who are suicidal and their families to be able to access services as easily and as early as possible. I am sure that she and her Government will get the full support of all parties if she brings that forward, and I look forward to seeing it in future course. I call on Maureen Watt to wind up the debate. As I said in my opening speech, the Scottish Government is committed to continuing the strong downward trend in suicides, and I am pleased that the desire to work collaboratively on the issue has come from members across the chamber today. I thank them all for sharing their experiences and knowledge in that area, and we will take it on board in terms of developing the new plan. Partnership is central to suicide prevention, and a new action plan on suicide prevention will create the conditions to strengthen our current relationships with partners and reveal opportunities to develop new partnerships that are appropriate towards our shared aim of continuing the long-term downward trend in the Scottish suicide rate. I thank all the partners both at national and local level who provide support to vulnerable individuals and have contributed to the suicide prevention action in Scotland over recent years. As has been said, we have seen a 17 per cent reduction in the rate of suicide in the last decade and that the gap in suicide rates between the most deprived and least deprived areas of Scotland has narrowed by 42 per cent in the last decades. Many have mentioned the increase in suicide from the last year, and we cannot extrapolate from one year's figures that that is going to be a trend. We need to see the five-year rolling averages, but we are determined to see to continue the long-term downward trend in suicides. Our future suicide prevention action plan will be based on the range of sources, including the experience of those who are believed by suicide and the latest research evidence on what works in the complex area. I urge all of you who mentioned and gave the harrowing stories of constituents to urge those constituents to feed in to the new action plan. Some have already done so and others, including the lady from Willie Coffey's constituency, urge them to feed in their thoughts on what should be in the next action plan, because it will be suicide prevention for everyone across the population and will take account of determinant factors, as well as of characteristics and factors that can help to protect against suicide. I assure members, including Alison Johnstone, that the next action plan will be for everyone, regardless of background, rural or urban refugee asylum-seeker, LGBTI. Johann Lamont and Jeremy Balfour mentioned postnatal depression, and I had a great morning at the Duna project, which Jeremy Balfour knows well. We have already set up the new managed clinical network on postnatal and anti-natal and postnatal clinical network, which includes postnatal depression. There are many groups, such as the Duna group in Edinburgh, who give peer support to women experiencing postnatal depression. The programme for government sets out our ambitions for building strong and safe communities, tackling poverty, improving housing and eradicating rough sleeping. All of that will necessarily touch upon suicide prevention in one way or another. As we have said before, in relation to the mental health strategy as a whole, it will not be delivered by the health portfolio alone. It will require cross-portfolio working. What can people do when they need help? That has been an issue that has brought up by many people. There are a range of factors that can help to reduce the risk of suicide. As many members have said, it is preventable. Supporting factors include social connectedness, close and supportive relationships, family resources and individual resources, such as problem-solving skills and personal skills, and looking after your physical health as well as your mental health as Brian Whittle has reminded us. It is important that we encourage and promote suicide prevention training and related work to raise awareness of suicide and its prevention, as well as the wider action to address stigma. It is important to encourage and support the work of local groups. That is what local choose life plans and local coordinators do. I have seen for myself the real help that peer support can give to families affected by suicide and those who have attempted suicide. When people feel that they need extra support, they should consult their GP. However, in my initial remarks, there are a range of out-of-hours support such as NHS 24, NHS-informed breathing space and the Samaritans. I recognise that men may feel a stigma in going for support locally, but it is important that everybody knows about other sources of help when they have low-mood depression or anxiety. Last week, I visited the Edinburgh Crisis Centre, run by Penumbra, which provides short-term support to people experiencing emotional and mental health crises, including people who are feeling suicidal. I was struck by the emphasis that the centre places on listening and on treating people with compassion. Many members, including a powerful speech by Finlay Carson, mentioned the incidents of suicide in rural areas. I helped to launch the Young Farmers Are You All Right campaign at Theinston Mart in the north-east. I am pleased to see that they won an award recently for that campaign. Of course, the Rural Mental Health Forum has grown from strength to strength and suicide, I know, is one of the issues very much on their agenda and will be taking that forward. I wanted to raise the issue of social media, which is whose use is commonplace among children in young people nowadays. It can be a positive way of helping people to access information about supporting their health and wellbeing. I have mentioned the Suicide Prevention Act, which has been well used in Aberdeenshire. However, we need to be vigilant about the challenges that social media can present around bullying, social isolation and encouraging risky behaviours. There is a positive and a negative. In our next plan, we should be harnessing the positive aspects of social media. As NHS Health Scotland reminds us in its awareness raising work, if you can read between the lines, you can save a life. Suicide is preventable, as many members have stressed. In addition to directing people to their GP or to phone breathing space or Samaritans, if you are worried about someone, you should be asking directly about their feelings, and that can save lives. The signs of suicide can be ambiguous, but we should all be alert to the warning signs and take all signs of distress seriously. Even if the person seems to be living a normal life, we will know that we are making real improvements when people feel comfortable about asking for help if they are in distress and when people are also comfortable about offering help if they see someone in distress. We know that more men are successful in committing suicide than women, but we need to find out the underlying causes and men really need to open up. Suicide is preventable and it is everyone's business. I can assure members, including Johann Lamont, that we are, as the health team, making sure that we can extract every single penny from the finance secretary for the health budget, including the budget for our next action plan. Our focus is in working with partner organisations, learning from the best examples around the country and being able to share them. We should also notice the research evidence, for example, from the confidential inquiry into suicide and homicide by people with mental illness and the heightened risk of people with mental health patients being discharged from in-patient care. That is certainly one aspect that we will be giving our full attention to in the new strategy. I fully appreciate that this is an extremely challenging issue and the risk assessment that needs to be taken in terms of people experiencing mental illness. Some people have mentioned the fact that the strategy has expired, but I can assure members that the actions in the strategy continue to be implemented across Scotland and, indeed, we have seen lots of new innovative practices being done in local areas to continue to reduce the suicide rate. However, I strongly associate myself with the sentiments in the amendment from Monica Lennon that inequality is compounded by the welfare cuts and people who are left with no money feeling particularly helpless. I really appreciate all the information and all the thoughts that members have shared with me in this debate this afternoon. I can assure members that they will be taken on board in terms of developing the new action plan and that there will be a group set up to monitor the actions in the new strategy as there has been with the mental health plan. That concludes the debate on suicide prevention in Scotland, and it is now time to move on to the next item of business.