Five Priorities to Save Lives: A view from Scotland's Lived Experience Advisory Group

Donna

I am Donna and I have been a member of Samaritans Scotland’s Lived Experience Advisory Group for almost 2 years now. After experiencing significant trauma, I have had ongoing struggles with my mental health since I was 16 years old.

I have spent over 30 years trying to get the right support for my mental health. Over the years I have accessed a range of support through GP referrals, third sector organisations, as well as employee assistance programmes through work. With support from my GP, I have been taking medication for 15 years.

I now describe myself as a survivor of child sexual abuse, rape as a young woman, and domestic abuse experienced in my forties. I have experienced two distinct periods of considering and planning to take my own life, first back in 2007 and more recently in 2022. But neither these experiences, nor my recorded medical history, led to receiving the appropriate, specialised mental health support that I needed.

In 2022, an NHS psychiatric nurse explained that the waiting lists were too long; so, I paid for private EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) as I was concerned as to where my thoughts were going to take me. I definitely benefited from this, but like all other short-term support I had accessed over the years, the impact was short lived. I spoke to a mental health nurse at my local GP practice in July 2024. Finally, I was listened to.

When I explained the various cycles I have lived through: twenty-five different addresses, leaving multiple jobs, ending relationships, accumulating significant debt, and experiencing life in a constant state of fight or flight; she referred me to the Community Mental Health Team. With a psychological assessment in January 2025, I began receiving weekly therapy in December 2025 with a clinical psychologist.

At 48 years old, I am now experiencing the benefit of this support and know the difference it is making. I wonder what my life could have been like if I had been able to access it before now. Because of this, Samaritans Scotland’s ask for increased funding for frontline mental health services is recognising just how significant early intervention can be and how long-term recovery is essential in responding to the different types of trauma that people experience.

I have been fortunate to have had family and friends who helped me when I needed it, but I understand that not everyone has that support. My own experience in the darkest of times recognises how I would purposefully distance myself from my loved ones. And so, when we were collaborating with the brilliant Samaritans Scotland staff team on developing the manifesto during our LEAG meetings, we all agreed on the importance of this ask.

If I could speak directly to leaders and decision makers, I would say that it’s not just about me. There is a far wider impact. Being able to access the right mental health support at the right time reaches far beyond the individual in distress. When I have been unwell, my physical health is affected, meaning more visits to the GP and costs of medication for the NHS. At home, the impact stretches to my children living with my struggles and behaviours, and the worry of friends and family. My workplace is also affected when I am not able to function or take sick leave, affecting the teams around me by placing extra pressure and workload on them.

Increasing this funding would not only improve outcomes for suicide prevention and early help with mental health problems, but will ripple significantly on longer-term savings across many areas of society and living.

Joel

Hi, I’m Joel, one of the members of Samaritans Scotland’s Lived Experience Advisory Group. For almost two years, I have contributed with my peers to Samaritans Scotland’s policy work, including Samaritans Scotland’s manifesto, “Five Priorities to Save Lives” ahead of the Scottish Parliament election on the 7th May.

There are five asks in the manifesto, each one important for the next Scottish Government to prioritise. One of the asks – Delivering a Minimum Income Guarantee for Scotland - is a focus that I have become increasingly passionate about, especially as LLMs (Large Language Models, or ‘AIs’) have exacerbated challenges within the local, national, and global job markets.

We are living in an increasingly unstable financial period of history. The job market has changed significantly. Individuals and families across Scotland are slipping into poverty, with those in the most deprived areas of Scotland acutely at risk. As highlighted in the Samaritans Scotland’s 2024 Report – ‘Paid Yesterday, Broke Today’, those with insufficient incomes were three and a half times more likely to report having experienced suicidal thoughts than those who had an income that met their basic needs. Those living in the most deprived areas of Scotland are two and a half times more likely to die by suicide than those living in the least deprived areas.

When a person cannot even have their basic needs met, how can they be expected to have the mental capacity to reach out for support, to start a path of recovery, or even to attempt to seek possible employment?

As someone who has experienced challenges with income after my time studying at university, it is not just the trial of managing bills, but also the hardship of the constant mental strain of feeling like a burden on society. This financial adversity contributed to my mental health crisis during this time that took years to overcome. The stigma I felt around reaching out for financial support prevented me from recovering as quickly as I might have done.

A Minimum Income Guarantee would be a visible, tangible guarantee that all Scottish citizens know that is there for them. With this in place, we could massively reduce the anxiety, depression and stigma that comes with slipping into an income deficit. With a Minimum Income Guarantee, people in Scotland would be in a better position to make plans and have the resources to work through personal hardships and to find a path back to steadying their personal funds.

The future seems uncertain for a lot of people, their livelihoods, and the job market as we know it – with international politics and the rapid expansion of technology playing a role. The next Scottish Government must commit to the Minimum Income Guarantee to ensure an economy that is more resistant to global economic turbulence.

In doing so, they will protect Scottish citizens by ensuring their basic needs are met; enabling many individuals to contribute to the economy and their local communities and supporting them through some of the factors that we know contribute to poor mental health and suicidal ideation.

None of us know what the future might hold, but a Minimum Income Guarantee will mean that people in Scotland experiencing financial hardship can hold on to some hope that they are supported, and that they can get back on their feet again.