Public Health

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 3:56 pm on 1 September 1999.

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Photo of Malcolm Chisholm Malcolm Chisholm Labour 3:56, 1 September 1999

I have only two minutes left. I am sorry I cannot give way, but I look forward to discussing the issue in the Health and Community Care Committee and elsewhere.

I welcome the minister's emphasis on minus one to five-the years of life, including the period in the womb, when all the evidence shows that issues such as birth weight are so significant. It is really good that the Executive is emphasising that. That too is related, as the Acheson report in England reminded us, to levels of income. In terms of welfare reform, we have to consider the income of pregnant women as well as women in the early years of their children's lives.

Food is a good example of how income issues relate to the lifestyle issue of diet. I would like to expand on that, but time does not allow me to do so. I will just say that in my constituency there is an excellent food project called Barry Grub, which tries to provide healthy food at wholesale rates in the Pilton area. We should consider food co-operatives and initiatives so that the problems poor families have buying healthy food are addressed.

The emphasis on mental health in the white paper is also very important. If I may advertise my constituency again, I will mention that there is an excellent community mental health project in my constituency, called The Stress Centre. The Executive should support initiatives such as that, which address the higher levels of mental health problems in certain areas.

There are many initiatives on mental health. I was glad to see circulars from the Executive on post-natal depression and on domestic violence, as both are closely related to mental health. I hope that the Healthy Respect project on teenage pregnancy will also consider how men and women relate to each other-they should certainly not do so with violence and inequality.

Time is almost up, but I have one final important point about the white paper. The issue is not just about addressing life circumstances and lifestyle; it is also about involving people at the grass roots in decisions about their health care. I am pleased that the proposals for the task force make that point. The task force will involve people from local communities, and that bottom-up approach is fundamental. It is practised in many community health projects, such as the one in my constituency.

I hope that, if there is any money floating around after the review, some small sums could be targeted towards community health projects as part of the social inclusion partnerships. Those projects involve local people in addressing those issues, which are a challenge to us all.