Rethink Mental Illness Manchester Group

If you've ever trawled through a Government consultation document you'll know that they're not the easiest read. This one, from the Department of Health, is no exception - at 130 pages you'll need a few cups of tea to get you through. Thankfully, Rethink have produced a handy six-page summary to save you the trouble. In a nutshell, the National Service Framework (NSF) for Mental Health in England expires this year and New Horizons is its new 'vision' for mental health. It contains some promising stuff - it covers areas such as prevention and public mental health, stigma, personalised care and collaboration between services. New Horizons aims to shape the way a range of agencies work to make mental health everyone’s business, from health services, local authorities, schools, employers, and those involved in the criminal justice system. The Department of Health asks quite a few (big) questions, such as: What do you think are the three most important changes for me...

NICE guidelines aren't a handbook for general good behaviour, but are issued by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (hence the 'NICE') as a guide on ow different health conditions should be treated - and set out the most effective treatments which they recommend should be offered. The new NICE guidelines on treatment for schizophrenia were published in March 2009. Rethink has produced a guide on changes from when the guidance was last published, which include: - The guidelines no longer recommend that newer, atypical antipsychotics are prescribed over older ones. Instead, they say that a choice of medication should be offered to the service user, following a discussion about possible side effects. - The new guidelines also recommend that the service user should be offered 10 sessions of CBT and possible family therapy. - GPs are also required to offer annual physical health checks to people with schizophrenia and the results should be shared with their ...

We've just received notification from Rethink that the North West Regional Committee has approved our application to register as a Rethink Group.