Part of our role is to use our unique overview of mental health and learning disability services to help Scottish Ministers and service managers shape policy. Some of the ways we do this include engaging with people who use services and their carers, publishing policy and research reports and responding to public consultations.
We have called for government to update Scotland's legislation on mental health and adults with incapacity, and have published our views. We welcome Ministers' commitment to taking this forward, and seek to engage closely as plans develop. By engaging locally and nationally, we aim to provide informed opinion.
We talk to people in communities across Scotland about their experiences of care and treatment. We also talk to relatives/friends to hear their perspective on care and treatment and on supporting someone close to them.
We employ two engagement and participation officers who lead on this work. They have lived experience of mental illness and of being a carer.
We publish anonymised reports that reflect those voices, experiences and opinions, and we use them to inform our work. They are not the Commission's view, but the views of people with lived experience.
As part of our influencing and challenging work, the Commission carries out research and publishes reports on key public policy issues.
A selection of other organisations' publications you may find useful.
Responding to consultations is one of the ways we use our unique overview of mental health, dementia and learning disability services in Scotland.
We also, from time to time, carry out our own consultations, to help inform our own work.
We also from time to time carry out our own consultations with stakeholders.