The new leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, Douglas Ross MP, has given local MSP Brian Whittle an expanded role within the party’s health team.
Brian will now be the Shadow Minister for Public Health, Mental Health, Sport and Wellbeing where continuing his existing work on issues like preventable illness and addiction in addition to his new responsibilities covering mental health.
The former Olympic athlete will also remain the party’s spokesperson on sport, working closely with Mr Ross, who is a qualified football referee.
Since his election to Holyrood in 2016, the South Scotland MSP has continually been part of the Scottish Conservative Health team, focussing particularly on how to tackle Scotland’s longstanding issues with poor health.
Brian has long argued for taking a longer-term approach to reducing cases of preventable illnesses within the NHS by tackling the causes rather than symptoms and supporting Scots to have healthier lifestyles. Among the policies he’s proposed have been greater use of healthier, locally sourced ingredients in school and hospital meals, tougher planning restrictions on fast food outlets and greater support for charities and third sector organisations.
Brian Whittle MSP said:
“I’m delighted that Douglas has asked me to take on these added responsibilities. Mental health is every bit as important as physical health. In fact, they have a big effect on each other and we need to think about how we improve both, together.
We don’t know what the long term impact will be on our mental health – even for those who haven’t had the virus – but many of us will already have experienced anxiety, depression, stress and other mental health issues during lockdown.
For those who have had serious cases of the virus or who have been working on the frontline in the health and care sector, there’s also a real risk of trauma-related mental illness.
Even before COVID, many NHS mental health services were overstretched, forcing patients to wait far too long for support. We need to start thinking about how we can improve mental health support now – the earlier someone gets the support they need, the better.
For me, the key isn’t just to improve how we treat mental illness in Scotland, but also do far more to prevent it.”
