A report examined the outcomes of a five-year plan (published by the government in January 2005) to improve mental health services for people from black and minority-ethnic communities. It described the action plan as 'a good starting point' that had helped in the identification of opportunities and possibilities for change and improvement, and had also served to highlight good practice.
Source: Melba Wilson, Race Equality Action Plan: A five year review, National Mental Health Development Unit/Department of Health
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Dec
A think-tank report called for radical changes in the delivery of mental health services in England to improve patient care and increase productivity. It recommended: a reduction in unnecessary bed use in hospitals and psychiatric units by providing better community-based services; a significant reduction in the number of patients placed in facilities outside their local area; and improvements in services for older people and those with long-term conditions who also had mental health problems.
Source: Chris Naylor and Andy Bell, Mental Health and the Productivity Challenge: Improving quality and value for money, King's Fund/Centre for Mental Health
Links: Report | King's Fund press release | CMH press release | RCPsych press release | Community Care report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Dec
A report said that the relationships between staff and service-users needed to change radically in order to improve outcomes in mental health services. Recovery from mental ill-health was not only a personal journey but also one of deinstitutionalization – it involved changes in leadership, human resources, training, and performance management by the National Health Service.
Source: Su Maddock and Sophy Hallam, Recovery Begins with Hope, Sunningdale Institute/National School of Government
Links: Report | CMH press release | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Nov
A study found that by providing an early intervention service approach rather than standard mental healthcare for one cohort of patients with psychosis, the National Health Service could save £40 million per year in the short term, £33 million in the medium term, and £18 million in the long term.
Source: Paul McCrone, A-La Park and Martin Knapp, Economic Evaluation of Early Intervention (EI) Services: Phase IV Report, Personal Social Services Research Unit/London School of Economics
Links: Report | LSE press release
Date: 2010-Nov
An article examined the lessons learned from a case study of a forensic mental health partnership. It said that the service in question revealed a number of common pitfalls in terms of the way that partnerships were established and put into practice. In many ways, this was the product of the wider institutional context in which health and social care partnerships had been developed and promoted. The existing concept of partnership working might lose credibility without additional work to clarify its meaning and contribution.
Source: Helen Dickinson and Jon Glasby, '"Why partnership working doesn't work": pitfalls, problems and possibilities in English health and social care', Public Management Review, Volume 12 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Nov
A discussion paper set out the case for developing an integrated approach for allocating resources to people with mental health problems. The existing divide between health and social care in mental health was not coherent, and a much better approach could be developed by building on the existing systems of individual funding that had been developing within the National Health Service.
Source: Simon Duffy, Resource Allocation in Mental Health, Centre for Welfare Reform
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Nov
A report called on the government to fulfil its promise to make psychological therapies available across the country to people who needed them. Access to psychological therapies for children and for people with severe mental illnesses remained limited despite good evidence of their effectiveness.
Source: We Need to Talk: Getting the right therapy at the right time, We Need to Talk Coalition
Links: Report | Mind press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Oct
An article said that poor planning was causing young people with mental health problems to miss out on adult mental health support when they left the care of child mental health services.
Source: Swaran Singh et al., 'Process, outcome and experience of transition from child to adult mental healthcare: multiperspective study', British Journal of Psychiatry, Volume 197 Issue 4
Links: Abstract | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Oct
A paper brought together the available evidence to provide a single coherent map of mental health need and services in England – from children to older adults, and across both health and social care services.
Source: Rachel Smithies, A Map of Mental Health, DP996, Centre for Economic Performance/London School of Economics
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Sep
A report documented the process, findings, and outcomes from a project that allowed community organizations, black and minority-ethnic users, and other community members to contribute to the development of mental health policy and to the planning and provision of services.
Source: Jane Fountain and Joanna Hicks, Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health Care: Report on the findings and outcomes of the community engagement programme 2005-2008, International School for Communities, Rights and Inclusion/University of Central Lancashire
Links: Links removed
Date: 2010-Sep
A report examined levels and standards of mental health provision in the young people's secure estate in England. There was an urgent need for all secure units to develop an integrated, comprehensive approach to supporting the mental health and well-being of the young people in their care. Any improvements made while in custody needed to be supported and maintained following release.
Source: Lorraine Khan, Reaching Out, Reaching In: Promoting mental health and emotional well-being in secure settings, Centre for Mental Health
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Sep
Researchers examined the role of primary mental health workers, focusing in particular on their role within education.
Source: Mary Atkinson, Emily Lamont and Barry Wright, The Role of Primary Mental Health Workers in Education, National Foundation for Educational Research
Date: 2010-Aug
A study examined how far new types of mental healthcare in England had been used in the care of minority-ethnic groups.
Source: Gyles Glover and Felicity Evison, Use of Mental Health Services by Minority Ethnic Groups in England, North East Public Health Observatory
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
A report by a committee of MSPs said that a 'worrying lack of data' to allow for a comprehensive assessment of whether the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 was delivering on its duties of equality and non-discrimination.
Source: Report on Post-Legislative Scrutiny: the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, 4th Report 2010, SP Paper 468, Scottish Parliament Equal Opportunities Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release
Date: 2010-Jun
A report made a series of recommendations for the redesign of mental health services. It looked at ways of creating efficiencies and improving productivity through redesigning services and care pathways, making better use of consultant expertise, the need for standardized outcome measures in mental health, and the need for more family-based mental health services. It called for greater partnership working between the statutory and voluntary sectors, and for strengthened commissioning arrangements to enable this to happen.
Source: Looking Ahead: Future development of UK mental health services, Occasional Paper OP75, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Links: Report | RCPsych press release
Date: 2010-Jun
A study found that primary care trusts in England were wasting hundreds of millions of pounds each year on treating people with severe mental health problems many miles away from their own homes. So-called 'out-of-area treatments' were on average 66 per cent more expensive than local treatments.
Source: Press release 14 April 2010, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Links: RCPsych press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Apr
The Welsh Assembly Government outlined proposals to improve the assessment and treatment of people with mental health problems.
Source: Proposed Mental Health (Wales) Measure, Welsh Assembly Government
Links: Measure | Explanatory notes | Hafal press release
Date: 2010-Mar
A report presented preliminary findings from the first year of a three-year programme aimed at supporting the development of innovative models of mental health support in schools for children and young people at risk of or experiencing mental health problems.
Source: Miranda Wolpert et al., Me and My School: Preliminary findings from the first year of the national evaluation of targeted mental health in schools (2008-2009), Research Report RR232, Department for Children, Schools and Families
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Mar
The first annual report was published of the National Advisory Council for Children's Mental Health and Psychological Wellbeing. It said that improving children's and young people's emotional well-being and mental health was still not high enough on everybody's agenda. There had been some good progress made: but it needed to be sustained. (The Council was created following the report of an independent review, published in 2008.)
Source: One Year On: The first report from the National Advisory Council for Children's Mental Health and Psychological Wellbeing, Department for Children, Schools and Families
Links: Report | NAC press release
Date: 2010-Mar
An inspectorate report in Northern Ireland urged criminal justice agencies to work together to address the needs of individuals presenting with mental health difficulties who engaged with the criminal justice system. It said that all criminal justice organizations should look at ways of developing screening and assessment processes to identify at an early stage those who should be diverted away from the justice system and provided with suitable care in the most appropriate setting.
Source: Not a Marginal Issue: Mental health and the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland, Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland
Links: Report | CJINI press release | NIE press release
Date: 2010-Mar
The inspectorate for healthcare and social care published its 5-year plan for contributing to better mental health provision.
Source: Position Statement and Action Plan for Mental Health 2010-2015, Care Quality Commission
Links: Plan
Date: 2010-Mar
The Welsh Assembly Government was given powers to legislate on the assessment of mental health and treatment of mental disorder, and on advocacy services relating to mental health.
Source: The National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Health and Health Services and Social Welfare) Order 2010, National Assembly for Wales/TSO
Links: Order |Explanatory memorandum | WalesOnline report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Feb
The inspectorate for education and children's services said that young people in care were not receiving consistent access to child and adolescent mental health services, with provision varying from good to none at all.
Source: An Evaluation of the Provision of Mental Health Services for Looked After Young People Over the Age of 16 Accommodated in Residential Settings, HMI 080260, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills
Links: Report | OFSTED press release | Local Government Chronicle report | Children & Young People Now report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Feb
A report said that more needed to be done to provide expert care to prisoners with severe mental illnesses. Treating prisoners in secure hospitals could help cut reoffending costs: but not enough were getting help.
Source: Judy Renshaw, Waiting on the Wings: A review of the costs and benefits of secure psychiatric hospital care for people in the criminal justice system with severe mental health problems, Laing & Buisson
Links: BBC report | Community Care report | Turning Point press release
Date: 2010-Feb
A new book developed a conceptual structure to define equity in mental health and mental healthcare, by analyzing data from three national psychiatric morbidity surveys.
Source: Roshni Mangalore, Equity in Mental Health and Mental Health Care in Britain: Concept, definition and empirical evidence, VDM Verlag
Links: LSE press release
Date: 2010-Feb
The government published its response to a review of child and adolescent mental health services.
Source: Keeping Children and Young People in Mind: The government's full response to the independent review of CAMHS, Department of Health and Department for Children, Schools and Families
Links: Response | DH/DCSF press release | YoungMinds press release | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Jan
The results were published of the 2009 ethnic census of inpatients and patients on supervised community treatment in mental health and learning disability services in England and Wales. The report said that the National Health Service, local councils, and wider community bodies should improve preventative services to ensure that they met the mental health needs of people from black and minority-ethnic groups. There was a need for better local strategic needs assessments and bespoke community-based services to reduce the risk of admission and detention.
Source: Count Me In 2009, Care Quality Commission
Links: Report | CQC press release | Mind press release | MHF press release | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Jan
A report examined the relationship between social welfare problems, mental health, and youth. It pointed to a need for advice services to be integrated with counselling services for young people.
Source: Mark Sefton, With Rights in Mind: Is there a role for social welfare law advice in improving young people's mental health? A review of evidence, Youth Access
Links: Report |Youth Access press release | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Jan