Lost generation is estimated at 50,000

More than 50,000 people are lost in the “forgotten generation” of
long-term service users who have been left behind by mental health
reforms, a new report from a leading charity concludes.

Reforms focusing on the young and most acutely ill have “left
behind a generation of people whose condition is medically stable
but who have a very poor quality of life”.

People judged “too well” are left without services and older family
carers are not given adequate support, the report from Rethink
says.

Researchers recommend annual primary care physical health checks
for everyone with a severe mental illness. Government reform and
local service delivery planning must include people who are
medically “stable” but experiencing a low quality of life, the
report adds.

Meanwhile, a report from consultant psychiatrists and mental health
charities, Rethink, Sane and the Zito Trust, concludes that staff
in psychiatric wards feel “demoralised and unsupported” and
patients are living in “bleakness and squalor”.

The report found serious staff and bed shortages with “unacceptable
living conditions”.

– Lost and Found from www.rethink.org

– Behind Closed Doors – Acute Mental Health Care in the UK
from 0845 456 0455.