NEWS


Quality of mental health estate slammed in Government report


P


eople with psychiatric problems are placed in ‘some of the worst estate the NHS has, just when they need the best’, say a team of experts charged with reviewing the


out-of-date Mental Health Act. In its newly-published report, Modernising the Mental Health


Act, the independent committee slammed current inpatient accommodation as ‘institutional’, accused planners of being overly ‘risk and infection averse’, and called for additional capital investment from the Government. Providing an overview of the current issues, including a


dedicated section on inpatient environments; and setting out a series of recommendations for improvement, the document states: “Wards become people’s homes, often for many months, and so should offer a positive community for the patient where they can build new relationships. “Sadly, people are often placed in some of the worst estate that the NHS has, just when they need the best.


A HOME FROM HOME “The physical environment of wards has become affected by an increasingly risk- and infection-averse approach, which can create the kind of institutional atmosphere that psychiatry has been trying to move away from for the last half century. “We, therefore, call for new capital investment by the


Government and NHS to modernise the mental health estate. “We argue that ward environments and ward cultures alike should support independence, social interaction and activity. These are all key to enabling people to get better.” Also recommended in the report are additional ‘health- based places of safety’ for use instead of police cells.


GROWING PRESSURE These suggestions, if acted upon, will call for a major investment in the mental health estate, to bring current


facilities up to standard, to increase capacity, and to provide new buildings to address the growing pressure on services. The report concludes: “This review will not, and cannot,


deliver a perfect system. That is impossible, not least because there is no agreement on what it should be. “What it does, however, aspire to deliver is a much-improved


system that, at its core, places the patient in higher esteem.” The NHS Long-Term Plan, launched in January, sets out


proposals to vastly improve mental health services. These included a renewed commitment that mental health


services will grow faster than the overall NHS budget, with the creation of a ring-fenced local investment fund worth at least £2.3billion a year by 2023/24. And, the Government earlier announced an allocation of £3.9billion to accelerate estates transformation across the NHS. It is expected that the Chancellor will give more detail on


exactly where this money will be spent in his upcoming Spending Review.


mhdf magazine


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