As part of a wider project on mental health in OECD countries, a series of descriptive profiles have been prepared, intended to provide descriptive, easily comprehensible, highly informative accounts of the mental health systems of OECD countries. These profiles, entitled ‘Mental Health Analysis Profiles’ (MHAPs), will be able to inform discussion and reflection and provide an introduction to and a synthesised account of mental health in a given country. Each MHAP follows the same template, and whilst the MHAPs are stand-alone profiles, loose cross-country comparison using the MHAPs is possible and encouraged.

Mental health is a priority area within the Scottish health care agenda. In the Scottish mental health system significant focus is given to recovery, service user involvement, anti-stigma initiatives, and suicide reduction strategies. Amongst the peculiarities, and strengths, of the Scottish mental health system are its focus on data collection, monitoring and evaluation, with a strong focus on improvement and delivery, as data collection and mental health indicators are turned into a management tool for policy makers. However, better indicators could be developed to monitor specialist mental health services delivered in the community.