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Most mental health day care and many in-patient services are ineffective and should be decommissioned and replaced with treatments that work, according to a national charity.

Money spent on mental health treatments with no evidence base for success should be diverted to services such as cognitive behavioural therapy, supported employment and therapeutic communities, the Mental Health Foundation argues in an election briefing released last week.

The report also calls for child and adolescent mental health services to be relocated to schools, and secondary school pupils to be educated on "psychological first aid".

The foundation's chief executive Andrew McCulloch said the plan was radical but realistic as it would not require any more money than is currently being spent.

McCulloch described unfocused day care as "a complete waste of money" saying it needed to be more focused to help people take up meaningful activity and employment.

Meanwhile, severe mental illness charity Rethink has called on the government to provide guidance on referral criteria to make services more accessible to the 50,000 people with mental health problems whose needs it believes are being ignored.

In a report launched this week, the charity urges primary care trusts to train practice nurses on severe mental illness and make GP health checks for the mentally ill a priority.


It says services should be commissioned that work at a moderate pace and do not put too much pressure on people to move forward.

• MHF's Revolutionising Mental Health Services is available from www.mentalhealth.org.uk/html/content/Election_release_April_05.pdf
• Rethink's Action Stations from www.rethink.org/research/Lost-and-Found.html