When: Tuesday 2 November
Where: Dexter House, London |
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Over 90 delegates came together to debate the challenges of the white paper for mental health providers at our conference supported by Janssen on the 2 November in London. |
The health white paper published on 12 July raised a number of key issues for mental health providers particularly around the introduction of a public health service, new GP led commissioning arrangements, the extension of choice in mental health and a focus on clinical outcome measures.
The mental health networks conference ‘mental health beyond the white paper’ provided a platform for members and stakeholders to develop the thinking around these issues through a series of plenary sessions and interactive workshops.
Highlights from the programme included a powerful and insightful presentation delivered by the key note speaker Malcolm Bellwood, Director of Operations for South of England, Combat Stress. The presentation focused on the work that Combat Stress are doing to support veterans and ex- servicemen and women who are experiencing mental health problems as a result of their service in the Armed Forces, Navy, or allied forces.
Malcolm described the scale of the issue and the increase in demand for support and the development of community outreach services to integrate with GPs and mental health teams throughout the UK to support veterans.
The mental health network launched their publication ‘improving mental health services for veterans'. Published in partnership with Combat Stress at the conference.
There was also a very interesting panel discussion on GP Commissioning for Mental Health Services. The main challenges that the panel expressed about commissioning was around the size, scope and capacity of GP consortia’s. Members also felt that the interface between Local authorities and GP Consortia needs to be clearly defined.
Following the plenary sessions, delegates then attended workshops on Choice in mental health, public health and wellbeing, vertical integration and patient safety.
The programme concluded with a key note speech from Bruce Calderwood, Director of Mental Health policy at the Department of Health. Bruce outlined the plans for the department of health’s new mental health strategy which is due to be published in the New Year. The strategy will be cross government and outcomes based, focusing on the acute care pathway, out of area treatments and physical health.
Bruce concluded that there will be a critical 3 – 6 months to shape the future service delivery.
All the presentations and the evaluation form from the day are available to download from the related documents section on the right side of this page.