Current status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 5 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the theme of Crohn's & Colitis Awareness Week 2025 being, How it Feels, what assessment it has made of the impact of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on mental health, and what its response is to the finding by Crohn's & Colitis UK suggesting that no adult IBD services in Scotland have a psychologist regularly available in multidisciplinary teams.
The Scottish Government welcomes the theme of Crohn's and Colitis Awareness Week 2025, “How it feels,” and values the work of charities like Crohn’s and Colitis UK in highlighting the challenges of managing often invisible symptoms such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). We are fully committed to ensuring people living with long-term conditions have access to safe, effective and person-centred care, including appropriate psychosocial support.
While we have not carried out a specific assessment of the impact of IBD on mental health, the Mental Health Equality Evidence Report which underpins our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy ,highlights the mental health impacts that adults with long-term conditions experience. Our Strategy therefore takes a whole person approach by ‘looking at a person and their wider circumstances, such as housing, relationships, physical health, and employment; not just their mental health’.
Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan ensures that the commitments in our Strategy are underpinned by a resilient and sustainable workforce. Over the last decade our direct investment has led to staffing levels across Psychology Services increasing by 62.3%, with 1,702 whole time equivalent clinical staff now in post. This is additional to the funding NHS Boards receive.
This psychology workforce is contributing to the delivery of our Strategy, both across the age span and in a wide range of settings; including primary care, physical health care, and older adults services. Whilst data is not held on the number of psychology staff working to support people with IBD, we can confirm that 63% of the psychology workforce are working in mental health settings, with the remaining 37% working in wider service settings. In line with their operational responsibilities, NHS Boards are responsible for the recruitment and retention of the psychology workforce, as well as the deployment of staff across services and within multi-disciplinary teams.
Finally, as we develop our Long Term Conditions Framework we will consider how people living with IBD receive effective psychosocial support. We are also considering the message of Crohn's and Colitis Awareness Week 2025 and will reflect this in future planning.