| Mental
health has "been left behind" says report
July
25, 2005
While
many NHS services have improved mental health has "been left
behind", according to an annual report on the state of health
care.
The
report said a lack of targets or requirement to collect information
in mental health - as well as in some other health specialisms -
may underlie the poorer performance.
Among
the report's findings were that that one third of community-based
mental health crisis resolution teams do not operate around the
clock.
The
annual report from the Healthcare Commission, an independent body
that inspects and reviews various aspects of health services, focused
for the first time on the experience of patients.
The
report's publication comes days after the health minister Rosie
Winterton said increased government funding has meant that mental
health is no longer the Cinderella service of the NHS.
The
report also warned that less than half the people with mental health
problems surveyed in 2004 said they had access to crisis care, such
as an out-of-hours phone number of a mental health professional,
when they needed it.
Sophie
Corlett, director of policy of the mental health charity Mind, said:
"There has been progress in some areas of mental health provision.
But mental health services did not start on an equal footing. There
needs to be much more investment, much sooner, if the quality of
care received by mental health service users is to be properly addressed."
Angela
Greatley, chief executive of the Sainsbury Centre For Mental Health
charity, expressed concern that there are not sufficient systems
in place to measure mental health waiting times.
"We
still do not know for sure how long it takes for people to get access
to mental health care - especially many of the popular talking therapies,"
she said.
"In
many places, waiting times of over a year are reported. This is
far longer than for services where waiting times are measured and
targets for reducing them are in place.
"If
people who need mental health services are to get equal treatment
to those needing other kinds of health care, it is vital that waiting
times are monitored and published."
Read for
yourself: The
Healthcare Commission's State of Healthcare report 2005 (pdf)
See also:
July
11: Mental health no longer the NHS Cinderella service, says government
- upbeat message comes one month after Healthcare Commission highlighted
a culture of violence on mental health wards
May
25, 2005: One third of mental health staff have threatened to use
medication or seclusion to control psychiatric patients' behaviour
- findings released in Healthcare Commission audit exposing culture
of violence on wards
Add your
comments
What
do you think? Email your comments on the above
article to the editor using the form below. Selected comments will
be displayed.
© 2001-7 Psychminded Limited. All
rights reserved
Email
a colleague
about this article
|
|
