Welfare Reform on the Web (May 2000): Mental Health Services - UK
CAN ACTION TEAM DELIVER A SKILLS CRISIS VICTORY?
R. Winchester
Community Care, no.1306, 2000, p.10-11
In the light of serious shortfalls in both the quantity and the quality of mental health care staff, the government has set up a workforce action team. It will consider the role of professionally unqualified workers in delivery basic care, to free up the time of professionals.
THE COMMUNITY CARE MOVEMENT IN MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES: IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
K. S. Yip
International Social Work, vol.43, 2000, p.33-48
This article is a critical review of the community care movement in the UK and the US and its implications for social work practice. Identifies problems with the community care movement including vague and unclear concepts of community, insufficient commitment from government, the under-development of informal community care and the under-estimation of the protective and custodial functions of mental hospitals. Goes on to identify implications for social work practice. Firstly, social workers need to enrich the concept of community care with those of normalisation and social integration. Secondly, they should develop on accepting community for mental health service users. Finally, they are the most suitable people to integrate formal and informal community care.
'DANGEROUS PEOPLE': REASONED PROPOSALS OR RHETORIC?
J. Wood and I. Phillip
Journal of Learning Disabilities for Nursing, Health and Social Care, vol.3, 1999, p183-184
Presents a critique of the government's proposals to allow the Courts to compulsorily detain people with severe personality disorders who may pose a risk to the public. In publishing these proposals the government seems to have overlooked the civil rights of a vulnerable group in society who deserve protection.
FACING THE HARD TRUTH
L. Warner et al
Health Service Journal, vol.110, Mar. 9th 2000, p.30-31
A survey of 104 mental health units found that half did not have policies on treatment of detained patients from black and ethnic minority groups. Almost three quarters had no policy for dealing with racial harassment of black and ethnic minority patients. Eleven per cent of patients whose notes were examined reported racial harassment.
NATIONAL SERVICE FRAMEWORK FOR MENTAL HEALTH
D. Davidson
Managing Community Care, vol.8, Feb. 2000, p.5-10
Article describes and reflects on the standards set in the new National Service Framework for Mental Health, as they relate to policy development in mental health and social inclusion. Highlights both positive contributions and missed opportunities.
ON THE CASE
P. Gregory
Health Service Journal, vol.110, Mar. 9th 2000, p.33
The green paper reviewing the 1983 Mental Health Act proposes the abolition of managers' power to discharge patients. Article urges the government to retain this safeguard of patients' rights.
REVIEW OF THE MENTAL HEALTH ACT 1983: REPORT OF THE EXPERT COMMITTEE
London: Department of Health, 1999
Committee's recommendations are based on the principles of non-discrimination on the grounds of mental ill-health and respect for the autonomy of the individual. These principles led to a proposal for the introduction of a specific capacity test. For people without capacity, compulsory treatment would be allowed if deemed necessary for the health or safety of the patient or others. The wishes of those with capacity could only be over-ruled and compulsory treatment administered if there was a serious risk of substantial harm to their own health and safety or the safety of others, and if the proposed treatment was deemed likely to prevent deterioration or secure an improvement in the patient's mental condition.
STRATEGIC PLANNING AND PROGRESS UNDER THE ALL WALES STRATEGY: REFLECTING THE PERCEPTIONS OF STAKEHOLDERS
S. Todd et al
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, vol.44, 2000, p.31-44
Nominated representatives from the various stakeholder interests, ie social services, health, education, voluntary organizations, parent groups and self-advocacy groups, involved in the implementation of the All Wales Strategy for the development of services for people with intellectual disability were interviewed two years after the end of the initial 10-year phase. Despite recognition of the leadership of the Welsh Office, the shift in thinking achieved, the advances made in inter-agency collaboration and in consumer participation in planning, and an increasing competence to plan effectively over time, the overriding perception was that more could have been made of the opportunity. At the heart of this judgement lay concern about pragmatic rather than strategic planning, and a failure to integrate planning to meet community needs with hospital resettlement.
TOWARDS A DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL SERVICE FRAMEWORK FOR MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
E. Peck
Mental Health Review, vol.5, Feb. 2000, p.3-8