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The NSF(Scotland) Carers Office for Grampian carried out a second tour of schools and workplaces in the autumn of 1996. 1041 senior secondary pupils (mainly aged over 16) and 75 employees attended presentations in 14 schools and 6 workplaces.
The pupils found the following most helpful: "clearing up misunderstandings", "how common mental illness is", and the "description of schizophrenia and how it affects others". The staff commented that the pupils had said that they would now be more likely to seek help for themselves or relatives who might develop mental illness.
The employees commented "I could have spent the whole day"; "extremely valuable to all staff in contact with the general public" and "opened the mind to realities not known before".
100% of the schools who responded to our questionnaire have requested further talks.
A fuller description of the tour is available from: Ann Donnelly, Carers Office Grampian, 367 Union Street, Aberdeen AB11 6BT. Tel/fax 44 224 21 28 31
Consultation is underway on the development of the "Appropriate Adults Scheme" in Scotland. This would permit a trained person to be present during police interviews with "mentally disordered" people.
NSF(Scotland)'s response has focused on the potential confusion or conflict of roles (the appropriate adult will be required to give the police any information provided by the person) and the resource implications (the draft expected that the appropriate adults would give their or their organisation's time "free").
We are now awaiting information on when and how the scheme will be introduced.
For more information contact: Mary Weir NSF(Scotland) at the Edinburgh office.
There is no obvious place to obtain information on government-funded mental health research in Scotland and a previous system of regional newsletters giving this information has been discontinued. Until the Chief Scientist Office in Edinburgh has a new newsletter (and possibly a web site) this information is not easily accessible.
There is a range of projects underway, mainly relating to research on medical processes and the roles of nurses and other professionals and we will be obtaining more information about these and reporting on them in future editions of the newsletter.
Other work on drug development is being undertaken by the pharmaceutical Scotia Holdings which has a drugs research and production complex on the Isle of Lewis and headquarters in Stirling, Scotland. Scotia are working in conjunction with psychiatrists in Inverness (and in Canada) to develop drugs to assist in the treatment of schizophrenia.
Contact: Susan Kirkwood.
With the election over, work is underway to contact all the Scottish MPs and ensure that they are aware of our concerns and the information we have on issues which may be important to them.
We have also started to review what we in Scotland need from European institutions and have started to meet with similar mental health organisations to develop a joint strategy which we hope will complement that of EUFAMI.
Contact: Mary Weir at the Edinburgh office.