Welfare Reform on the Web 9April 2004): Mental Health Services - UK
CHILDREN'S RIGHTS AND MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS
D. Morley
ChildRight, no.204, 2004, p.17-18
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services have been seriously under-resourced and regarded as a low priority by the government. There has also been too little emphasis on early intervention.
COLLABORATING FOR MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN WALES: A PROCESS EVALUATION
N. Jones, P. Thomas and L. Rudd
Public Administration, Vol. 82, 2004, p.109-125
The article examines the attitudes and perceptions of health service managers in Wales to collaboration in mental health services before assessing the use of Hudson's "ten stages of collaborative endeavour" framework in this context. Interviews were held with 27 managers, 16 from social services and 11 from the NHS, and the resistors and facilitators to collaborative working noted. The article concludes that although Hudson's model provides a useful analytical framework, greater emphasis on interaction between managers is needed.
DECIDING FOR OURSELVES
S. Aspis
Professional Social Work, Mar. 2004, p.14-15
The article explains why people with learning difficulties are campaigning against the draft Mental Incapacity Bill. The Bill would make it lawful for carers and support workers to make day-to-day decisions for a person they judge to be lacking capacity. The article argues that people with learning difficulties should instead be given support to make their own decisions.
DELIVERING JUSTICE
C. Jackson
Mental Health Today, Mar. 2004, p.8-9
The inquiry into the death of David Bennett found the mental health services to be riddled with institutional racism and made clear recommendations for its elimination. There are now fears that the Department of Health will dodge the issue and fail to take firm action.
DEMENTIA: FREE NHS HOME CARE
Anon.
Registered Homes and Services, Vol. 8, 2004, p.145
Reports a ruling by the Health Service Ombudsman that should allow people with dementia to receive free NHS care at home.
EFFECTIVE/EFFICIENT MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMS FOR SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN: A SYNTHESIS OF REVIEWS
G. Browne and others
Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 58, 2004, p.1367-1384
The article reviews evidence from the literature on the effectiveness (comparing outcomes for children receiving and not receiving services) and efficiency (considering the cost to society of providing services compared to the cost of not providing them) of mental health services for school aged children. Policy implications, including the benefits of creating programmes around an ecological approach to children's services and tailored, long-term timely interventions for high risk children, are then discussed.
EVALUATION OF AN EARLY INTERVENTION TIER 2 CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE
A. Worrall-Davies, D. Cottrell and E. Benson
Health and Social Care in the Community, Vol. 12, 2004, p.119-125
A tiered child and adolescent mental health service was recommended in 1995 following concerns about the ad hoc and uneven nature of mental health services for children. A four-tier system was introduced in 1997, with tiers 3 and 4 reserved for the most complex problems, tier 2 providing specialised local services for particular problems and tier 1 giving universal first line services locally to children and their families. The article reviews the success of the second tier using demographic and referral information for all children referred to the tier 2 team between June 1999 and February 2000. Results show that the tiered model achieved its goals - tier 2 addressed a previously unmet need, providing short, focused interventions to families. It also worked as a filter, ensuring that tier 3 only received complex and chronic referrals. However, in conclusion the article highlights the limitations of the study and calls for further, more detailed, research.
A HEALTH VISITOR-LED SERVICE FOR CHILDREN WITH BEHAVIOURAL PROBLEMS
T. Johnston and P. Titman
Community Practitioner, Vol. 77, 2004, p.90-94
Children with behaviour problems often have to wait for a long period of time before being treated by specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). The article describes the development of a new service led by a health visitor working with families who would previously have been seen within the CAMHS service. It details a six month project where a health visitor was employed to work with thirty-eight families with children between 4 and 11 years old, categorised as having non-specific behavioural difficulties and on the CAMHS waiting list. The severity of the children's problems was reduced and rates of satisfaction for the service were very high.
IT'S TIME TO VALUE EVERYONE
G. Mir
Community Care, Feb. 19th-25th 2004, p.38-39
The Valuing People White Paper pointed out higher rates of learning difficulties in some ethnic groups, along with problems of late diagnosis and high levels of unmet need. The need to ensure that ethnicity was addressed in the work planned as a result of Valuing People was re-stated many times. Unfortunately this has not happened in practice. Government guidance, support and targets are needed to stimulate change.
LEAP'S EARLY LOOK
E. Forrest
Health Service Journal Vol. 114, Mar. 11th, 2004, p.31
The article presents a case study of an early intervention team targeted on young people with psychotic illness.
MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS A LIFELINE
S. Sardar
Community Care, Mar.11th-17th 2004, p.36-37
Article presents a critique of Delivering Race Equality, the latest government strategy for tackling inequality in access to mental health care. Argues that the strategy places too much responsibility for delivering change on the voluntary sector and on minority communities themselves, letting statutory services off the hook.
OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS
C. Jackson
Mental Health Today, Mar. 2004, p.10-11
The Department of Health has been encouraging mental health services to offer employment opportunities to users. At the same time, overly cautious occupational health departments are preventing such people from getting jobs or causing them to withdraw applications for posts due to abrasive questioning during assessments.
RECONSTRUCTING MENTAL HEALTH LAW AND POLICY
N. Glover-Thomas
London: Butterworths, 2004
This book is the first title from the Law in Context Series to fully consider the issues surrounding mental health law and policy. By examining the development of contemporary mental health law in its social and political context, it provides a critical and in depth analysis of the current regime and the tensions within it.
TACKLING THE ACUTE CRISIS
S. Clarke
Mental Health Today, Mar. 2004, p.24-26
Acute psychiatric inpatient services face intractable problems with staff recruitment and retention and standards of care are falling. The article proposes a new approach to improving services, which involves tying together values, staff training and service development with partnership working.