Rethink Mental Illness Manchester Group

I'm slightly behind the times with this one, which was released over a week ago on 2nd February. But here it is. I don't claim to have read it and am going to cheat and use the government's own summary to describe it: "No health without mental health: a cross-Government mental health outcomes strategy for people of all ages represents a major step forward in mainstreaming mental health and supporting the Government's important aim of achieving parity of esteem between physical and mental health. It has been produced in collaboration with many of the Department's partner organisations. It will enable more decisions about people's mental health to be taken locally, and stresses the interconnections between mental health, housing, employment, and the criminal justice system. Supporting documents including an action plan for expanding talking therapies have also been published." You can download the full document from the Department of Health's website...

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...