News

Launching Catalysts for Change – a vision for mental health in Scotland 2036

Our new strategic plan outlines how lived experience and peer support will drive recovery-focused transformation of our mental health system.

It presents our vision, mission, values and strategic outcomes, and explains how we will work with others to transform how Scotland’s mental health system operates.

In early 2025, we held community roundtables across Scotland to engage lived experience, peer support, third sector and public sector leaders in discussions about the future of peer support in mental health. What emerged was clear: a unified desire from across sectors to have peer support and recovery as a driving force for mental health transformation.

We want to accelerate the shift towards recovery by creating opportunities, conversations and spaces for lived experience and peer support leaders to be nurtured, grow, connect, and influence change. We are building a peer workforce and sharing recovery and lived experience models that fit the local cultures and strengths of communities across Scotland. As policy, practice, and culture align around recovery, we will stay future focused and concentrate on what matters:

• Lived experience leadership
• High-quality peer practice
• Community-led change

Transforming Scotland’s mental health system requires change across many fronts. Our focus is on lived experience leadership and peer support because we believe they are essential to making that transformation happen. The result will be a mental health system that operates with people, hope, peer support, and recovery at its core.