Has there ever been lovelier or funnier campaign photo than these?

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie today set out plans to transform the treatment of mental health in primary care. He produced new independent analysis which shows 643,000 working days were lost in Scotland as a result of Depression in 2014/15.

The analysis commissioned from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) by the Liberal Democrats estimated that the total cost to the economy of the 643,000 working days lost due to depression was £54.6 million.

SPICe used the Labour Force Survey results to reveal that 337,000 people in Scotland reported struggling with depression.

Speaking as he met therapy animals from Canine Concern Scotland, Willie set out Liberal Democrat plans to improve access to talking therapies. We plan to expand the provision in primary care with up to 960 new staff co-located with GPs – on average one for each practice. The new investment will be enough to allow each practice to recruit new staff to offer a million additional treatment sessions each year for patients suffering from mental ill health.

Willie said:

This analysis from the independent expert Scottish Parliament Information Centre shows the enormous scale of the damage that mental illness does to individuals and the wider economy. 643,000 working days will be lost this year as a result of depression which is just one mental health condition.

Doctors, nurses, therapists and others working in mental health in Scotland are doing fantastic work. But waiting time targets for treatment continue to be missed and the SNP have cut the share of spending on mental health.

Under our plan every GP practice will be able to have an additional qualified mental health professional to support and treat patients. They will be able to provide one million treatment sessions. This will help people get back to work and achieve their potential, as well as increasing productivity in the economy.

We have already announced plans to double the funding going towards child and adolescent mental health services. This will end the scandal of year-long waits for treatment and the fact there are no beds for them north of Dundee.

Our mental health plan will be an important part of our costed manifesto. It takes into account the areas north of the central belt that have been neglected for far too long and will deliver for children and adults across the country who continue to suffer from debilitating mental health issues.

We will make sure that treating mental health as the poor relation stops in 2016.

Oh, all right then, one more.

And relax.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings