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Your editor (in his wisdom) thought it would be very cool for me as a Scot to tell you about the state of mental health in Scotland. Regarding mental health over here, it is all a go!

Like most places we are trying to rid ourselves of the large psychiatric institutions of old and have care in the community. And yes this should be the way forward. It will, of course, take time to set everything up as it should be. It will require funding, trained personnel and a proper structure. There have been major changes within policy and strategy and while there has been an understandable shaky start on this, we detect a perceptible improvement. There was great apprehension and fear regarding all these hospital closures and there still is, but imperceptibly things are improving.

We have a new Mental Health Act about to be implemented. While there will never be such a thing as a 'perfect mental health law,' this one is not too bad as these things go. We have things like 'Advanced Statements' where you can detail your wishes regarding your treatment in 'advance' and it will be given proper consideration, a Named Person appointed on your behalf (interestingly this does not have to be a carer) and we will also have a Tribunal which will consist of a lawyer, psychiatrist, mental health professional, service user and carer should legal procedures be required instead of going to court. Hopefully, this should be a better balanced and more realistic process for all those involved.

As a country we have been pretty progressive as a few years ago our government set up the Mental Health Division to manage all things on mental health. The result is we have progressed to having the Mental Health and Well-Being Programme, which has a large budget to raise mental health awareness within Scotland and is seen as an important part of health care amongst other things. This incorporates a radical anti-stigma and discrimination campaign (visit www.seemescotland.org for more info). It produces advertising, promotional material and comments in the media on controversial mental health issues. There is an anti-suicide campaign called the 'Choose Life Initiative,' which highlights these issues. We have Breathing Space, which is a crisis helpline for people and is particularly targeting men. The Scottish Recovery Network has just been formed to promote mental health recovery rather than people just maintaining mental health at a fixed point and will enable people to move forward.

Preventative measures are being addressed too as with Mental Health First Aid, a national training programme, which will see 'trainers' training ordinary people in first aid just like physical first aid—people like hairdressers, taxi-drivers, etc. able to recognise the symptoms of acute mental illness and signpost people where to seek help. The Mental Health Programme is also funding lots of smaller projects and is also producing its own magazine, which is all about mental health issues and is distributed nationally.

I believe all these activities put Scotland at the forefront of innovative mental health programmes worldwide. Things are not changing overnight, but there are significant developments happening and they are having an effect. Yes, there is a national shortage of psychiatrists and nursing staff, we may soon have too few inpatient beds and these are urgent issues that need to be addressed, but I am optimistic for a variety of reasons. I see a national Mental Health Division that is prepared to listen to and heed the voices of the users of its service.