Hi, I'm Richard Leonard. I'm the convener of the Public Audit Committee.

We're here at Chris's House in Wishaw to discuss the Public Audit Committee's report into adult mental health.

Chris's House stands for Centre of Help, Response and Intervention Surrounding Suicide

and has been set up to offer a safe environment

where people in or approaching suicidal crisis

can have a safe place to go and get professional support.

Our committee report highlighted the great pressure,

which is on adult mental health services,

and recommended a number of actions to help combat this. Today I'm pleased to be joined by Anne Rowan, who's the founder

of Chris's house, and Dr Pavansheredi, the vice chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland.

So to get us started, one of the first

issues recommendations from the report which I wanted to discuss with you, and I'll start with

you, Pavan, was the pressure which is now on adult mental health services. Could you describe

from your perspective what that pressure looks like and where it's come from?

I think what we've been seeing on the ground in a clinical setting is a relentless increase in demand.

That's been ongoing even before the pandemic, but in some ways it's almost been supercharged by the

pandemic. And that increase in demand and need extends across almost every part of the mental

health system. It's an increase in referrals about people needing more help. When people do

present to services, they've had to wait for quite a while.

That means they're presenting with far more complex sets of difficulties.

People who already have mental health difficulties have been hit extremely hard by the lockdowns

and then the cost of living crisis. They can't get the same level of help and support

...