Introduction
Why a Centre for Mental Health?
The Future
Introduction
The Centre is a collaboration of all who share our values, bringing together and galvanising interested individuals, mental health organisations and leaders, patient groups, the media, corporate sector partners, and statutory agencies. It is designed to provide a beehive for policy and service development, giving everyone in mental health a voice.
People affected by mental health problems face an uncertain, confusing and often frightening experience. Patients continue to face huge problems. Rates and quality of diagnoses vary dramatically. Legislators and regulators issue guidelines irrespective of whether there is an infrastructure to support them and without adequate monitoring and evaluation of their implementation. While research shows that most people trust their G.P. and want their mental health looked after in primary care, levels of expertise are variable. When referral becomes necessary, waiting times for secondary care remain intolerably long and are often subject to postcode lottery. There remain serious divides between academics, the research fraternity, and clinicians. Perhaps most worryingly, patient safety and confidence are at risk because there is no formal monitoring of the service environment, and no effective voice speaking on behalf of all in mental health.
Although the Centre is a positive endeavour, it is born of the frustration of those who have worked in mental health, particularly in small to medium-sized voluntary organisations. We have long-battled against capacity issues; ever-changing corporate and political imperatives, the time-consuming search for core-funding and the lack of service provision or investment. We think we've got the answer and we need you.
Subscription to the Centre is free but we do ask that you do more than be a recipient of the information and support we offer. We need you to participate, contribute and disseminate.
It is only by joining forces that we can effect real change.
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Why a Centre for Mental Health?
People affected by mental health problems face an uncertain, confusing and often frightening experience. Patients continue to face huge problems. Rates and quality of diagnoses vary dramatically. Legislators and regulators issue guidelines irrespective of whether there is an infrastructure to support them and without adequate monitoring and evaluation of their implementation. While research shows that most people trust their G.P. and want their mental health looked after in primary care, levels of expertise are variable. When referral becomes necessary, waiting times for secondary care remain intolerably long and are often subject to postcode lottery. There remain serious divides between academics, the research fraternity, and clinicians. Perhaps most worryingly, patient safety and confidence are at risk because there is no formal monitoring of the service environment, and no effective voice speaking on behalf of all in mental health.
Access to information perhaps the most important early intervention is almost invariably dependent on the presence of a charitable organisation representing the illness area. Most small to medium-sized charities face a daily battle to survive, utilising much of their efforts in the pursuit of funding, especially monies to cover core costs. If the situation persists, some will disappear. When an organisation as essential and well-respected as the United Kingdom Advocacy Network faces closure, when the UK Patient Carer Helpline opens and closes dependent on funding, it is time to consider the future of mental health patient organisations.
The time has come for those organisations to work collaboratively to help themselves. However, this collaboration born of financial necessity carries with it another, equally important, opportunity. Much of the mental health expertise in this country resides in the charity sector. Key clinicians, researchers and advocates, operate within mental health charities. As their organisations collaborate to survive, they will also create the opportunity to bring together these key people in an environment where their respective skills are used to optimum effect ö the Centre for Mental Health.
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The Future
Small to medium-sized charities need a roof over their head. They need a basic infrastructure (a telephone system, computer network, meeting and mailroom facilities, administrative support, etc.). The charities must meet these fixed costs before any work in pursuit of their charitable objectives can be undertaken. People working in mental health share a tremendous commitment to the work, and it is extremely frustrating when they have to spend a disproportionate amount of time just keeping their organisations in business. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect is that while organisations are meeting the challenge to survive, those who need them most - their beneficiaries - are left in limbo. This frustration causes good people to leave the sector, and it causes organisations to fail. In short, mental health organisations have existed for too long in a funding ghetto. There is a determination to succeed. To offer the levels of service our beneficiaries deserve. To provide an operating environment that will enable people to be the best and to keep the best people in mental health.
In its second phase, the Centre for Mental Health will aim to bring organisations together under one roof, providing them with a basic infrastructure and shared administrative support, aligning their work to a charter of shared goals and beliefs, enabling them do the very best for people with mental health problems. And it will do so in a financially secure, sustainable way. It will reverse the situation where organisations use 70% of their staff time just to survive. They should be devoting 70% of it to deliver much-needed services, and the Centre for Mental Health can make sure that they do so. But, before that can happen, phase one must succeed.
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