Slow progress on change, says charity

Campaigners have warned that significant changes have yet to
take place in mental health, despite the fact the government is
half way through its 10-year national service framework.

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of charity Sane, said a report
into progress on the NSF’s implementation by mental health tsar
Louis Appleby stated that  services ha improved for some service
users over the past five years.

But she added: “We have yet to see significant change for most
of the thousands of people who call us each week.”  Assertive
outreach, early intervention and crisis resolution teams sounded
progressive but in reality were able to deal with limited numbers
of people, Wallace said.

In his report, Appleby says that many people are still not aware
of who they can contact in a crisis.  Under the NSF, 335 crisis
resolution teams were supposed to have been set up by the end of
2004, but only 168 have been formed.