{"id":308129,"date":"2025-11-23T02:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T02:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/308129\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T02:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T02:09:11","slug":"anas-sarwar-vows-new-emergency-mental-health-service-if-scottish-labour-win-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/308129\/","title":{"rendered":"Anas Sarwar vows new emergency mental health service if Scottish Labour win election"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Labour plan would put trained professionals, not police, first on mental health emergencies.Rachel Keenan, PA Scotland News and Politics Reporter and Gemma Ryder<\/a> Reporter<\/p>\n

12:13, 22 Nov 2025<\/p>\n

Anas Sarwar who has said that a Scottish Labour government would create a new emergency service to ensure people in mental health crisis get urgent and specialist care.(Image: Stefan Rousseau\/PA Wire )<\/p>\n

A Scottish Labour government would create a new emergency service to ensure people in mental health<\/a> crisis get urgent and specialist care, Anas Sarwar has said.<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of his party\u2019s<\/a> Scottish policy conference on Saturday, the party leader declared Scotland\u2019s mental health services are in \u201ccrisis\u201d and accused the SNP of \u201cneglect\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAfter almost two decades of SNP Government, Scotland\u2019s mental health services are in crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey promised parity between physical and mental health, but instead we\u2019ve seen soaring waiting lists, slashed budgets, and thousands left without the treatment they need.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile mental health services have been hollowed out, it is our police officers who are picking up the pieces. They are overstretched, overwhelmed, and expected to act as the emergency service of last resort.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a failure of Government, not a failure of policing. I refuse to allow this neglect to continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Scottish Labour government will create a dedicated mental health emergency response service so that when people phone 999 in crisis, it is trained NHS professionals who respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AThe servcies would be manned by health professionals.(Image: Lynne Cameron\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

The service would be manned by specially trained paramedics, nurses and mental health<\/a> professionals.<\/p>\n

They would deliver immediate support, specialist triage and safe transfer to the right place for ongoing care.<\/p>\n

Building on similar schemes in Sweden, Amsterdam, and parts of England, the aim would be to prevent unnecessary A&E transfers and significantly reduce reliance on police support.<\/p>\n

Scottish Labour\u2019s plan forms part of a wider shake-up to cut \u201cNHS bureaucracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The party said it will combine NHS 24 and the Scottish Ambulance Service into a single emergency response and advice service, ensuring seamless 24\/7 care for people in crisis.<\/p>\n

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Mr Sarwar continued: \u201cThis is about fixing the basics \u2013 cutting red tape, rebuilding frontline services, and ensuring people get the right care at the right time.<\/p>\n

\u201cScots deserve better than the waste and incompetence of the SNP.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn just six months Scots will have a choice \u2013 more failure with the SNP or a Scottish Labour government that puts their priorities first.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposals also include improved mental health training for A&E clinicians and expanding the availability of psychiatric liaison nurses to deliver round-the-clock triage in emergency settings.<\/p>\n

\"CabinetCabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Neil Gray(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

Scottish Government Health Secretary Neil Gray said: \u201cThis Government is laser-focused on improving our NHS and ensuring people get the right care they need, whenever they need it. In fact, just this week we marked 100,000 people using our non-clinical Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme which already provides rapid frontline care and follow-up community support within 24 hours for people in distress.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur plan to improve the NHS is bringing results. We\u2019ve seen waits coming down for the fourth month in a row, increased the number of call handlers in the Scottish Ambulance Service and yesterday we announced funding for a clinical model in hospitals which we estimate could save 12,000 ambulance journeys over winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we know there is more to do, particularly to improve the care people receive for their mental health. That is why we are investing millions in Police Scotland, NHS 24, and the Scottish Ambulance Service to develop the enhanced mental health pathway, directing emergency calls from people in distress to the 24\/7 NHS 24 Mental Health Hub staffed by specially trained practitioners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Labour plan would put trained professionals, not police, first on mental health emergencies.Rachel Keenan, PA Scotland News…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[159496,97,3730,259,260,159497,159498,159499],"class_list":{"0":"post-308129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-anas-sarwar","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-labour-party","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth","13":"tag-police-scotland","14":"tag-scottish-labour","15":"tag-scottish-national-party"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}