The Scottish Government has issued a consultation document on the Mental Health Strategy for Scotland 2011-2015. Responses are invited by 31 January 2012 and we would encourage groups working on food and mental health to make a response.

The document outlines 14 high level outcomes across mental health improvement work, mental illness prevention work and improvement of mental health services. Actions to date and key challenges for the next four years are covered for each area, together with a series of 35 questions for your comment.

Question 6 asks ‘What other actions should we be taking to support promotion of mental wellbeing to individuals and within communities? Questions 14 – 16 focus on service user involvement in service design and delivery and the implementation of the new Scottish Recovery indicator. Questions 22-24 look at improving the reach of mental health services. These are all key issues for organisations that are working with food in relation to mental health.

Our joint publication with the Scottish Development Centre for Mental Health highlighted the important role food can play in supporting mental health and wellbeing and highlighted some practice example.

If you do make a response to the consultation and cover your food work, we would welcome sight of your submission to inform our future work planning.

Update for reference: an archive of the Consultation Report (Sept 2011) is available here: https://www2.gov.scot/resource/doc/357051/0120639.pdf