COVID-19: information for psychiatrists in Scotland

Explore our most up to date guidance and information for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals working in Scotland. 

Update: Guidance around administering Covid-19 vaccine to adults with incapacity

As the vaccines for Covid-19 are more widely rolled out, they will be delivered by a range of clinicians and professionals. Some of these professionals will be more familiar than others with administering the vaccine to people with incapacity, and the procedures around this including the Section 47 certificate process.

To assist with the rollout, please find below key guidance around administering vaccines for this group in line with the Adults with Incapacity Act 2000.

Additionally, if you know of someone who should have received a vaccine letter and hasn't, please use the contact forms on NHS inform's website.

How to use our guidance

We have created a fast-evolving hub of COVID-19 information designed for clinicians.  This guidance has been written from a broad UK perspective and will be, for the most part, applicable across the UK, and the College is asking its members in Scotland to adhere to this guidance where possible.

This page contains references to key Scottish resources, external guidance and a glossary of terms, to complement the UK guidance.

Key principles

• Mental health professionals, as with other healthcare workers, may find themselves having to make very difficult decisions during this time. Practitioners should continue to adhere to their own and Good Medical Practice values; and it is essential that they know that in doing so, they have the full support of the Chief Medical Officer, Regulatory Bodies, and the Royal College.
• This guidance provides a set of universally applicable instructions for mental health professionals, however, local Health Board and Health and Social Care Partnership guidance must also be adhered to.
• Practitioners should continue to do their utmost to adhere to human rights principles and those of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003. Circumstances may arise which prove a challenge to the normal practice of adherence to these principles, in such incidences practitioners should act with proportionality and with Good Medical Practice values.
• Guidance on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is updated regularly, however, practitioners must also refer to Health Protection Scotland for regular updates, as PPE guidance will continue to evolve. Scottish Government have introduced new measures to improve the distribution of PPE, including a point of contact for all health boards to manage local PPE supply and distribution, and an email address for NHS staff to contact if they do not have what they need is covid-19-health-PPE@gov.scot. It will be monitored continuously.

Terminology

Please note that some of the terms used in the RCPsych’s guidance are aimed at members in England and Wales and are not applicable to Scotland. For instance, references to Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups should be interpreted as Health Boards.

Please note that the use of Local resilience forums and Health Protection teams (HPT) are not applicable to Scottish Psychiatry and Mental Health. If you see a link to Public Health England, please refer to Health Protection Scotland.

Scotland-specific guidance

Whilst the UK guidance should be relevant and of use to practitioners across the UK, please find below some exceptions and considerations specific to the Scottish health care system. This will be updated regularly.