Mental Health |
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The joint work reflects the shared responsibility for the delivery of these services across health and social care. The findings show that, since the introduction of the National Service Framework for mental health, there has been a steady improvement in the range and quality of such services for those who need them and Local Implementation Teams (LITs) appear to be an effective vehicle for commissioning and delivering new models of community mental health. However, the pace of change and improvement has been variable, leaving some people with little or no access to specialist care and treatment. In 2005/06, each of England’s 174 LITs was assessed on three criteria: the involvement of the people who use services; access to appropriate care and treatment (such as talking therapies); and recovery and social inclusion. Fifty-four per cent of LITs were found to be performing consistently well (ie. they were assessed as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’) across all three areas. The remaining 46% scored ‘fair’ or ‘weak’. The report found room for improvement in all LITs as well as noticeable variations in performance between the regions. For instance, in the south west 73.3% of LITs were performing well, whereas in the south east just 37.5% were. The review found ‘considerable underperformance’ in each of the three areas assessed. Of particular concern was the fact that people who use the services were not being routinely involved in decisions about their care and treatment. It is crucial that people are given full information about the options available to them and are fully involved in decisions about their treatment and care. However, services will have been working to improve their performance since the time of this review and we will be using the results of the forthcoming Mental Health Patient Survey and the 2007-2008 Annual Health Check to identify the level of improvement.
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