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Mental health services should move away from a model based purely on medical diagnosis to one that deals with people’s wider needs, delegates heard today, writes Simeon Brody.

Speaking at a conference organised by Homeless Link, which represents agencies working with rough sleepers, David Morris, programme director of the Department of Health’s National Social Inclusion Programme said the “direction of travel” was with a wider interpretation of mental health problems.

He added the government may have “turned a corner” in the move away from basing treatment on diagnostic categories towards meeting people’s needs as “social beings.”

Morris also said that the government’s homelessness guidance was being revised to ensure it took account of mental health needs.