This is the list of documents available for the submission By Councillor Euan Blockley:- "Council recognises World Mental Health Day 2019 which occurred on Tuesday 10th October. Council welcomes the opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to championing the right of Glaswegians to high quality mental healthcare and tackling the stigma surrounding mental health issues. Council welcomes action taken by the Scottish Government to increase investment in mental health, including supporting the mental health of young people in schools through investment in school counselling services and trialling improvements to the NHS 24 Breathing Space service. Council further welcomes the UK Government initiative launched in recent weeks by the NHS and Public Health England - Every Mind Matters - which seeks to help people take simple steps to look after their mental health, improve their mental wellbeing and support others. Council acknowledges however that far more needs to be done. The number of children and young people in need of mental health care waiting longer than the Scottish Government's target for specialist appointments rose from 1,650 in 2017 to 5,227 in 2018. Just 72% of young people seeking treatment were seen within 18 weeks, down from 77.5% the previous year and well below the Scottish Government's target of 90%. Council notes the work of Audit Scotland whose report on Children and Young People's Mental Health revealed the scale of the challenge with the number of referrals to specialist services having risen by 22% in the last five years and one in ten children aged 5-16 having a 'clinically diagnosable mental illness'. Council further notes that, tragically, suicide is the highest cause of death among men under the age of 45 in the United Kingdom and that male suicide in Scotland has continued to rise as overall rates of suicide have fallen. Council recognises the expertise of the Suicidal Behaviour Research Lab of the University of Glasgow in this area in their assertion that we do not know enough about the "complex set of social, clinical and cultural factors and psychological factors that increase that risk" for men. Council therefore commits to working on a cross party basis on the issue of mental health, engaging with domestic and international examples of best practice, and supporting continued research in the field as a critical component of our determination to reduce the prevalence of suicide in Scotland and across the United Kingdom". .

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