Welfare Reform on the Web (November 2000): Mental Health Services - UK
BREAKING THE CYCLE OF DISADVANTAGE: YOUNG PEOPLE, SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND MENTAL HEALTH
C. Pritchard and T. Mason
Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Care, vol. 4, 2000, p. 14-15
Article reports the findings of three linked research projects into the social and financial costs of social exclusion among young people. The studies show that rates of crime, suicide and unexpected death are highest among the most excluded, but that the cycle of disadvantage can be broken by practical, school-based preventive intervention.
CALLED TO THE BENCH
P. Clarke and T. McCarthy
Health Service Journal, vol. 110, Sept. 14th 2000, p. 30-31
By December 2000 all mental health trusts must be part of a benchmarking group. Reports on how 2b inner city trusts came together to work towards this goal. They have developed key indicators and found them useful in monitoring their progress. The research has been useful in highlighting service improvements and remaining areas of difficulty.
CARE IN THE FAMILY
V. Williams and C. Robinson
Community Care, no. 1336, 2000, p. 26-27
Reports investigation of the impact of carers' assessments on the families of people with learning difficulties.
DRUG USE, MENTAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION: CAUSE, EFFECT AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
N. Hunt and A. Ashenhurst
Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Care, vol. 4, 2000, p. 18-21
There is a complex interplay between drug use, mental illness and social exclusion and growing recognition that services need to be sensitive to their combined effects. Best practice in this field remains to be clearly defined. Efforts are being made to clarify whether drug services, psychiatric services or new specialist services. However, current mental health and criminal justice legislative proposals may further stigmatise and exclude people already marginalised because of their mental health and substance abuse problems.
MENTAL HEALTH NATIONAL SERVICE FRAMEWORK: WORKFORCE PLANNING, EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNDERPINNING PROGRAMME: INTERIM REPORT BY THE WORKFORCE ACTION TEAM
London: Department of Health, 2000
Focuses on staff recruitment and retention (including attracting professionally non-affiliated people into the mental health workforce and tackling the stigma attached to working in mental health services) and improving training so that existing staff can be used more appropriately and new staff brought in.
ON YOUR DOORSTEP: COMMUNITY ORGANISATION AND MENTAL HEALTH
Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health
London: the Centre, 2000
Community mental health services offer social support for patients that is not always available in primary or secondary care services. This report suggests that community organisations are more suited to responding to mental health problems among a culturally diverse population. It focuses on two community based organisations, Bromley by Bow Centre in East London and Health First Health Action project in Norwich. The report explores the perceptions of people involved in these projects, either as volunteers, users, workers, as well as commissioners and other partner agencies. It then attempts to apply lessons from generic community development projects to thinking about the engagement of people with severe and enduring mental health problems.