The global pandemic helped to shine a spotlight on the importance of wellbeing and mental health. As demand for different forms of mental health support continues to rise, our Psychology Team explain what is next for our mental health services and how we’re adapting to change.
Dr Belinda Hacking, Director of Psychology and Consultant Clinical Psychologist explains:
“There is a great deal of investment going into psychological services to expand and develop them, which we’re currently reviewing with our teams and partners. It will help to make it quicker for people to access psychological treatment and will ultimately change the way we offer care.
“Patients are at the heart of everything that we do and so we’re developing our services around their needs and making them more psychologically and trauma informed. That way we can ensure a range of services are available to help people in whatever context they need.”
“As an organisation, NHS Lothian is committed to continually improving its psychology provision to offer high quality, accessible care for all patients and is serious about becoming a centre of excellence.”
Reflecting on just how much services have changed over the last few years, Donna Gilroy, Consultant Clinical Psychologist added:
“The structure of the service has already changed a lot. There is greater clarity and leadership and we now have hundreds of members of staff working across almost every area of healthcare. While there are still some gaps there’s been a huge amount of development in different roles for psychology during Covid-19 and the last couple of years, which has never been there before.”
“For example, in my own speciality area of older adults there’s an increased focus on working in medical, inpatient, and care home settings and going into different areas of healthcare and social care than before.”
After working in clinical psychology Jenny Strachan has recently returned to focus on working in adult mental health. She says:
“It’s a bit a cliché to say that there is no health without mental health, but it is very true and more important than ever.”
“Psychology within Lothian is a massive service and there is so much good we can do to support people with the kind of difficulties that they have. The opportunities to continue investing, growing and developing our service is really energising and exciting. Alongside the change in public sentiment towards mental health, I think we’re in a really good position in Lothian to capture that and turn it to the good.”
