Housing shortage linked to rise in mental health emergencies
New figures show there were 74 emergency detentions in the first half of this year - almost double compared to the same time last year.
Last updated 9th Dec 2025
The long-running housing crisis in Dumfries and Galloway is directly leading to more people experiencing mental health emergencies.
A new data report has shown that there were 74 referrals for emergency detention certificates (EDC) in the first six months of this year – an increase of 96 percent compared to the same period last year.
An EDC is used when a person is experiencing a mental health emergency and needs urgent assessment in a hospital.
When asked why there has been a surge in these cases, council chiefs this week admitted that “poverty and homelessness increases the impact on their mental wellbeing.”
In the summer of 2024, Dumfries and Galloway Council declared a housing emergency due to a serious shortage of houses, and growing backlog of people on the homeless list.
The latest social work figures were presented to councillors at the council’s social work committee on Tuesday.
The stats showed that Dumfries and Galloway’s Mental Health Team has received a total of 551 referrals for mental health support in the first six months of 2025/26 – which equates to an average of three per day.
A breakdown of those figures also highlighted that emergency detention referrals for people in crisis almost doubled from 38 in the first six months of 2024/25 to 74 in the same period of 2025/26.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Lochar Councillor Linda Dorward said: “There’s been an increase in requests for a short-term certificate, an eight percent increase between quarters one and two, and emergency certificates too – which increased significantly by 96 percent.
“Is that normal, or are there exceptional circumstances?”
Rebecca Aldridge, the council’s senior operational manager for adult care, said: “It is primarily normal. The difficulties that we’re seeing within the Mental Health Team with people coming through the services is that poverty and homelessness increases the impact on their mental wellbeing.
“There is a challenge around getting access to relevant GPs that can do short-term detention. When that happens there’s an increase in emergency detentions.
“We’re working closely with our colleagues within the health and social care partnership to mitigate some of that.
“The emergency detentions, you’ll possibly see an increase in that over the winter period because people do dip in their mental health. We do see that there’s a dip naturally.”
An EDC is a legal document that allows a person to be held in a hospital for up to 72 hours for urgent assessment of a mental disorder, especially when they pose a significant risk to themselves or others and their decision-making is impaired.
Council housing chiefs recently held their hands up to the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) over failing people in Dumfries and Galloway, particularly through a shortage of homeless units.
On October 3, the local authority submitted an annual assurance statement to the governmental body on housing performance, and had admitted breaching the government’s unsuitable accommodation order more than 400 times for failing to provide enough temporary accommodation.