Charities ‘could double provision’

The amount of state-funded mental health treatment provided by the voluntary sector could double over the next three years, under plans drawn up by a coalition of providers.

The Mental Health Providers Forum aims to increase voluntary sector provision in mental health from an estimated 10 per cent to 20 per cent within three to five years.

Chief executive Judy Weleminsky said the voluntary sector could provide an approach focusing on well-being, promoting independence, and offering motivated staff.

She said: “What the voluntary sector is able to do is work very closely with people on the recovery model.”

Weleminsky, who was suspended from the board of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service in 2004 after raising concerns about the organisation but was later exonerated, was chief executive of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship in the 1980s.