CONCERNS are growing over the impact of Scottish Government funding cuts on vital mental health services in Inverclyde.
At a recent meeting of Inverclyde's Integrated Joint Board, members were told that the local authority's school nursing service, health checks for adults with learning disabilities and recruitment are all set to lose tens of thousands of pounds.
The Scottish Government has reduced the allocations for extra funding aimed at improving outcomes on mental health.
READ MORE: People with mental health illnesses in Inverclyde doubles
Her remarks came only a month after shocking figures from Scotland's census showed mental health illnesses have doubled among Inverclyde residents in the last ten years.
Ms Turner, who was appointed to the board in July, said: "I think this is of grave concern when we realise the interlinkage between all other services and mental health.
"It is reassuring to hear that staffing won't be affected but I think if anything we need to hang onto the service, see how they interlink and make sure they are sufficient to be able to cope with the amount of burden of mental health that we have to in our patch.
"This is something that we want to be mindful of as we go through not only the IJB but as we move ahead over the next year."
In a report to the IJB, it is stated that the cuts to the enhanced outcome funding will result in Inverclyde losing nearly £50,000.
Almost £40,000 of this cash had been earmarked for the Action 15 project, which was put in place to help meet the Scottish Government's targets around increasing the staff workforce.
It comes on top of funding pressures reported elsewhere, which include a £5.2million funding gap that Inverclyde's health and social care partnership is facing over the next two years.
It also comes at a time when bosses say there is strain on in-patient mental health services where there is an overspend of £682,000 while recruitment continues to be a problem.
Across the council's social care services, there are also pressures on services with further recruitment problems and increasing financial commitments on client packages.
At the most recent IJB meeting, Convenor Robert Moran stepped in to highlight census figures that showed issues with mental health were rising and asked whether those statistics were considered when decisions were being made around cutbacks.
Chief officer Kate Rocks told the IJB that funding from the Scottish Government can be an issue because it is not core funding, which limits their ability to plan ahead.
Ms Rocks said: "There is always a challenge around money which is not core, we have lived in this place for a long time.
"Coming out of the pandemic more money was put in but we were struggling to recruit.
"We want to look at where we want to prioritise and what has the greatest impact. Mental health touches every single part of children and families, criminal justice, adults services and homelessness.
"I am very clear I don't want to see any money lost out of health and social care budgets, we are already dealing with a £5.2million pound shortfall. But the scale of what we are managing is a lot more manageable that other health and social care partnerships elsewhere.
"We would want to give you that reassurance that we are looking at this."
Inverclyde health and social care are set to carry out a review in the next six to 12 months looking at how all services are delivered.
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