Title of driver: A Manifesto for Better Mental Health
Source: The Mental Health Policy Group. (Rethink Mental Illness, Centre for Mental Health, Mental Health Foundation, Mental Health Network, Mind and the Royal College of Psychiatrists)
Link to main document: Follow this link to view the pdf https://www.mind.org.uk/media/1113989/a-manifesto-for-better-mental-health.pdf
(MIND also has pages with links to the full text, a summary and some background information).
Publication format: PDF
Date of publication: August 2014
Summary of driver:
The manifesto is a call to any future government to prioritise mental health; and to commit to and work towards improvements to the provision of mental health services.
The manifesto focuses on five main areas with several suggested improvements and commitments for each.
Key features of driver:
The five areas the manifesto focuses on are:
- Funding for mental health.
- Mental health services for children.
- Improving the physical health care of people with mental health conditions.
- Improving the lives of those with mental health conditions.
- Improving access to mental healthcare services.
Within these area there calls for action around:
- Increasing funding so improvements can be implemented; and basing funding decisions on their impact on the delivery of mental and physical health services.
- Women’s access to mental health services during and post pregnancy.
- Mental health being part of the school curriculum.
- Training school nurses and teachers about mental health.
- Continued funding for evidence-based parenting programmes.
- Reducing avoidable deaths amongst those with mental health conditions
- Ensuing doctors monitor the physical health of people with mental health conditions.
- Applying the reduction of smoking targets equally to people with mental health problems – reducing the risks to their physical health.
- The Time to Change programme
- Combining employment support and health support for unemployed people with mental health conditions.
- Implementing maximum waiting times for mental health services.
- Crisis care and the Crisis Care Condordat.
- A national network of liaison and diversion mental health services, to work with the police and the courts.
Primary audience: Politicians, in the run up to the 2015 general election.
Impact on library policy/practice: No immediate direct impact on libraries identified.
If these ideas are taken up by a future government, there may in an increased interest in evidence-based information around the topics and service developments suggested.
This could influence the topics which libraries receive literature search and current awareness service requests for. This may also require collection development around these topics and to support strategy development.
Date last updated: October 2017
Due for review: October 2018
Group member responsible: FG
Tagged: Decision-making, Funding, Mental health, National policy, Service development, Strategy