Major Mental Health Reforms Planned

Children should be taught about mental well-being as part of the school curriculum, according to a new report. Setting out a vision for 2015 the report also said employers should ‘positively recruit’ people who have had mental health conditions and should compete to become ‘Well-Being Workplaces’.

The paper, which proposes radical changes to mental health services, was published by four leading health and social care bodies – the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, the Association of Directors of Social Services, the Local Government Association and the NHS Confederation.

It said that, in future, the focus of public services should shift to promoting mental well-being rather than being on mental ill health.

Mental health services should also be integrated into other services including GPs’ surgeries, libraries and schools.

Those with mental health problems seeing their GP should be able to choose from a range of treatment options and for those with the most serious problems, acute care should be available in crisis houses or ‘hotels’ as well as in hospitals.

People with serious conditions should have their own individual budgets to buy services and should be advised by an ‘associate’ experienced in employment, benefit and housing issues as well as treatment and health care.

Individuals should also be able to make appointments at times that suit them rather than being told when to turn up, the report said.

Talking therapies should be available routinely when people need them, along with advice on staying in work and maintaining an ordinary life, it said.

Angela Greatley, chief executive of the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, said, ‘By investing in good mental health and offering people who experience mental distress a better service the pounds 77bn annual cost to society can be reduced and some of our nation’s starkest inequalities can be redressed.’

Liz Main, author of the paper and a user of mental health services, added, ‘The vision for 2015 shows how services will have to reshape to centre around the individuals who need them.’