Kate O’Sullivan, Operational Lead for Grampian Data Safe Haven (DaSH) was invited by Research Data Scotland (RDS) to speak at a Scottish Parliament Cross-Party Group on Health Inequalities yesterday (21 Feb 2024).
Kate talked about the power of data, showcasing findings from Networked Data Lab (NDL) research on children’s mental health prescribing and secondary referrals and data linkage to Aberdeen City Council data to look at ‘at risk’ children specifically.
The NDL research on access to children’s mental health services highlights the important role of regional Safe Havens in providing multi-agency data linkage services, but also the significant governance challenges with this work.
There is tremendous potential in investing in regional safe havens to facilitate opportunities for Scotland-wide multi-agency data sharing to improve access to data for research that will improve health and care services.