Adult Mental Health Services Review, July 2011
The Mental Health Services Working Group recommends that:
1. Local authorities embrace the Time to Change Campaign as a route to tackling the stigma attached to mental health disorders.
2. The PCT engages with local authorities in the development of its Wellbeing Strategy.
3. Information on voluntary, community, public and private mental health services for all sectors of the community be made more easily available.
4. A website be developed, along with an accompanying leaflet, outlining all local mental health services in Kent along with details on how to access these.
5. The local website referred to in recommendation 4 be advertised in GP surgeries, Gateways and libraries alongside the NHS Choices website and highlighted to GPs new to the area to improve knowledge of services.
6. Clarity is ensured over developments or cuts in mental health services to reduce uncertainty over services, which can be worrying for vulnerable patients.
7. Consultations should be in a variety of formats, with short versions available containing only priority questions, to ensure that carers and service users can participate even where time is limited.
8. Consultation results should be clearly publicised along with proposed follow up actions, including for the recent listening exercise.
9. The following areas of concern are focussed on:
Access to psychological therapies and availability of funding for services which tackle mild to moderate mental illness;
Tackling long waiting lists for talking therapies in order to prevent deterioration of patients’ mental health;
Improving access to secondary care for a broader range of patients;
Ensuring an emphasis is placed on listening to the needs of service users in secondary care; and
Improving access to information on patient healthcare, budgets and statistics, in particular via websites.
To Local Authorities and the Health Trusts
10. In light of evidence that physical activity contributes to good mental health, local authorities and the health trusts should work together to provide exercise on prescription.
To Local Authorities, the Health Trusts and the Third Sector
11. Joined-up working between service providers should be encouraged to ensure seamless and complementary provision of services for the benefit of all members of the public experiencing mental health problems.
12. Patients should be supported in undertaking voluntary work as a precursor to returning to paid employment.