Change Mental Health’s Edinburgh services are at risk.
We run vital community mental health services from the Stafford Centre, available to anyone in Edinburgh. Support is available for people experiencing severe and enduring mental illness, such as schizophrenia, psychosis and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and trauma. We also support veterans and ensure people have access to welfare rights advice, among more.
Our aim is to keep people well in their community, by providing early intervention and prevention services to stop people slipping into crisis. This saves lives and money. It’s the official policy approach of the Scottish Government.
Yet, the very local body – the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board (EIJB) – tasked with overseeing joined-up thinking has begun cutting community mental health services here in Edinburgh. In fact, a continuation of their current proposal would destroy community mental health in Edinburgh. It would make Edinburgh an outlier in Western Europe as the only city with no community mental health provision.
Your support is crucial
These cuts threaten the future of the Stafford Centre and other community mental health services provided across Edinburgh through the award-winning Thrive programme.
640
people supported
at the Stafford Centre
80%
say the Stafford Centre
has kept them out of hospital
up to £4.4 million
savings for NHS Lothian per year
on psychiatric hospital admissions
thanks to the Stafford Centre
The Edinburgh Integration Joint Board (EIJB) is jointly funded by the City of Edinburgh Council and NHS Lothian.
It has responsibility for the delivery of delegated Health and Social Care services in the City of Edinburgh and has been saddled with a deficit since its inception in 2016.
The EIJB is reviewing contract funding to charities who provide early intervention and preventative community mental health services. With a view to stopping this funding, their new strategy calls for these very services.
While we understand money needs to be saved and there’s a need for reform, the current proposal is flawed in its execution. Stop the cuts.
We’re urging the EIJB to:
- Delay the cuts for one year to allow for a comprehensive redesign of services that will be more integrated, cost-effective and better suited to the needs of the community
- Ensure meaningful partnership and co-production in the redesign process, involving service providers, stakeholders and people supported by services in decision-making.
Yes, you can. You can make your voice heard.
Write to the 10 members of the EIJB and express why community mental health services need to remain in Edinburgh. Ask them to reconsider these cuts. Help us save public money and save lives.
- Cllr.Tim.Pogson@edinburgh.gov.uk (Chair of the EIJB)
- Katharina.Kasper@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk (Vice Chair of the EIJB)
- Christine.Laverty@edinburgh.gov.uk (Chief Executive of the EIJB)
- Cllr.Alan.Beal@edinburgh.gov.uk
- Cllr.Vicky.Nicolson@edinburgh.gov.uk
- Cllr.Alys.Mumford@edinburgh.gov.uk
- Max.Mitchell@edinburgh.gov.uk
- George.Gordon@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
- Elizabeth.Gordon2@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
- Philip.Allenby@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
- Peter.Knight2@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
Sign the petition to stop mental health cuts in Edinburgh.
Aside writing to the EIJB, you can also write to your local MP or MSP using the WriteToThem service.
“Stafford Centre is a vital community asset that’s an intangible part of Edinburgh’s fabric.
“The EIJB is proposing to slash mental health services in Edinburgh at a time when they have never been more needed. We have had incredible concerns about the process that has been gone through, the logic and rationale for the decision making and the terrible impact this will have on some of the most vulnerable people in the city. All of this for what will save well under 1% of the EIJB’s budget.
“We need the Board of the EIJB to show leadership, act and tell officers that these kind of cuts will result in too much harm to the capital.”
Nick Ward
CEO
Change Mental Health
learn more
Our briefing
Read more about the background of Stafford Centre and Thrive, along with our arguments and recommendations to stop the cuts.
Read our statement
Our statement shares our stance on these proposed cuts and the impact they would have on community mental health in Edinburgh.
Previous CEO’s comment
Our former CEO, Mary Weir, shared her views on how community mental health has been transformational to Edinburgh over the last 40 years.
Read more
