What action it is taking to address diagnostic overshadowing impacting people with mental illness.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to ensuring people have access to advice and support for their physical and mental health, at the point they need it. We are also committed to healthcare being delivered in an integrated, person-centred way, both to improve patient outcomes and mitigate the risk of diagnostic overshadowing.All NHS Boards in Scotland adhere to clinical guidelines and best practice when planning services, and the NHS medical workforce is trained to identify and manage risks of diagnostic overshadowing. These staff also work within their competencies and in accordance with professional practice guidance to ensure the most appropriate assessment, diagnosis and treatment is carried out. In practice, this means the healthcare workforce gives ongoing consideration to the presence and interaction between physical and mental health in order to identify and support comorbidities and mitigate the risk of diagnostic overshadowing.Our Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy includes a priority outcome of ensuring ‘people with mental health conditions, including those with co-existing health conditions, experience improved quality and length of life, free from stigma and discrimination’. This priority has led to our associated Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan identifying groups most likely to be affected by diagnostic overshadowing, along with a range of actions to mitigate this risk. For example, by May 2024, professional learning resources were delivered for all NHS professionals working in adult services (or with adults) to help ensure our communities’ mental health and wellbeing needs are better understood and met.Additionally our Core Mental Health Quality Standards make clear that NHS Boards should take a whole person approach to assessing and meeting an individual’s mental health needs, by considering their physical, social, communication and psychological and neuordivergent needs.Finally, our National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions sets standards for the delivery of psychological therapies by NHS Boards. These therapies are proven to make a real difference to people’s mental and physical health. A key element of the specification is for psychological therapies to be delivered in a person-centred way and integrated way in order to improve an individual’s psychological and physical health. Positively, in 2024-25 more than 74,000 people started treatment in psychological therapies in the NHS in Scotland, with over 63% of the psychology workforce delivering therapies within mental health settings and the remaining 37% in other settings – showing how mental health needs are being identified and met across a range of healthcare settings.