News

Day services for people with mental health problems will be overhauled to include a range of provision such as access to employment opportunities, under proposals set out in a new report by the government’s Social Exclusion Unit, writes Sally Gillen.

Measures to transform day services into “community resources” that will open up mainstream services are among 27 action points in the 144-page document.

It says that, although £140m is spent on day services, their activities often do not promote social inclusion and they should, for example, provide advocacy services to aid access to local provision in the future.

The report, based on a consultation with 900 people and organisations including service users, charities and local authorities, finds that mental health users suffer discrimination in almost every sphere of life.

In March, the government set aside £22m to fund the capital costs associated with the report’s anticipated recommendations. From this pot, every council with a social services department has received a baseline amount of £50,000 to implement the changes.

A £1.1m campaign to tackle stigma, described in the report as “the single greatest barrier” to better integration of mental health service users in the community, was also announced by the Department of Health.

Fewer than a quarter of people with a mental health problem have a job, and the low expectations health and social care professionals sometimes have of their clients can hamper their progress, says the report.

Health minister Rosie Winterton said it was vital that people with mental health problems were properly supported to gain or retain employment and access education, advice on finances, legal rights and other community facilities and appropriate heath and social care services.

Directors of social services and primary care trust chief executives will have lead responsibility for drawing up local action plans to implement the report, and will be expected to review commissioning practices to ensure voluntary and community sector input.

Acting chief executive of the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health Angela Greatley said the report “must become a watershed in our history”. 

But chief executive of charity Rethink Cliff Prior said the report offered “no radical ways improve the way the benefit system traps and discriminates against mental health users”.