Category Archives: health

What mental health services can learn from Sandwell’s integrated approach

September 15, 2014   Carers, Featured Article, health, mental health

Sandwell in the West Midlands has re-engineered its services to support more people at an earlier stage in their illness, with impressive results

It is good news that the chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, has turned the spotlight on mental health in her latest report. She is right to argue for a big drive on public mental health.

There is already some great practice out there. I would urge Davies to take a trip to Sandwell to find out how and why the area is doing so well on violence reduction and reducing levels of depression.

Earlier this month, I travelled to Sandwell and Dudley to find out for myself. The answer is not rocket science, it is all about relationships. Focusing on building relationships helps people to become more resilient and capable.

Sandwell’s approach to mental health and wellbeing is all about recognising and developing people’s relational assets and never turning people away.

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Now is the time to create a combined health and social care system

September 4, 2014   Carers, health, Social care, welfare

4th September 2014

Merging two leaky buckets does not provide a watertight solution.

NHS England’s chief executive, Simon Stevens, recently told the Health Select Committee that merging two leaky buckets does not provide a watertight solution. It is for this reason that the growing problems in the NHS and social care cannot be solved by the Better Care Fund or any of the other short-term solutions on offer. Nothing less than a fundamental reform of the funding of health and social care services and citizens’ entitlements to publicly funded support is required to address these problems.

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How technology could help monitor and treat mental health conditions

August 12, 2014   Carers, Featured Article, health, mental health

Technology has the potential to make significant and cost-effective contributions to mental healthcare

Mobile phone usage has seen huge increases in recent years, especially in poorer countries, writes Conor Farrington. Photograph: Bloomberg

Mental health care is often described as the Cinderella of medicine – overlooked, disparaged, and generally neglected. In the UK, mental health care is the single biggest item on the NHS budget (£12.16bn in 2010/11), but in practice this means that only about 11% of the overall spend is allocated to deal with 23% of the disease burden. Recent cuts have also hit mental health care significantly harder than acute hospitals, creating a combination of falling capacity and rising demand. Mental healthcare appears to suffer from the same stigma in policy circles as individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder experience in private life. And just as stigma leads to worse outcomes for individuals with mental health problems, the underfunding of mental health care leads to higher long-term costs for the NHS.

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