Editorial
| Pages | 2-3 |
| Date | 06 July 2010 |
| Published date | 06 July 2010 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.5042/mhrj.2010.0365 |
| Author | Chiara Samele |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Mental Health Review Journal Volume 15 Issue 2 June 2010 © Pier Professional Ltd
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10.5042/mhrj.2010.0365
Editorial
These are daunting but interesting times. As the
Tory–Liberal Coalition makes its mark in the UK
we are left in no doubt of the pending cuts to
public sector services. Health appears to be safe
with the promise to increase health spending
in real terms each year. Reducing the enlarged
public deficit remains a stark priority with
austerity measures ready to take aim as anxiety
levels increase. Previous policies concerning
mental health such as New Horizons (Department
of Health, 2010) and the Bradley Report (2009),
now unmentionables, have faded into the
background while life goes on.
The swiftly drawn-up coalition policy
statement s ets out its five-yea r programme
for the current Coa lition Gover nment (HM
Government, 2010). For the Nati onal Health
Service dri ving up standards th rough more
accountability to the patients it serves is a ke y
factor. It is seen as a w ay of imp roving the
quality of health care. There is little mention of
mental heal th at th is stage; a fleeting reference
to the i dea of ex ploring alt ernative for ms of
secure acco mmodation t o provide treatment f or
drug users and mentally ill offenders; and a one
liner promi sing more support fo r the men tal
health of veterans.
Perhaps now is the time for something more
cheerful. The aptly titled paper ‘Green shoots
of recovery…’ by Wilson and colleagues in this
issue of Mental Health Review Journal reminds us
to hope for a better future at a time when it is
easy to feel gloomy. Their evaluation literally
goes back to grass roots to assess a programme
of outdoor activities called ‘Branching Out’
for people with severe and enduring mental
health conditions. The paper highlights the
importance of meaningful activity and the great
outdoors. Some positive outcomes are reported
with improvements in mental well-being,
physical health and increased social skills. What
is also interesting about this programme is the
involvement of employers such as the Forestry
Commission. It is partnerships like this that can
make a difference in achieving independence
and a fuller life for someone with mental health
problems.
On a very different note, Tosh and colleagues
provide an interesting look at the accessibility
of three available policies on physical health
care within one mental health trust. Their
focus is on the way that these policies have
been formulated. These authors carried out an
assessment of the size, readability, references
made to external information sources and
reading cost of policies on physical health care.
Lo and behold the findings are not good. The
policies examined used vague language, took
more than 15 minutes to read and had high
SMOG levels (refers to readability in terms of
sentence length and the use of polysyllabic
words). What is really disturbing is the almost
excessive use of the word ‘should’ in one policy
and the total absence of ‘how’ in two of them.
The authors recommend that local policies are
written so that they are readable, succinct and
unambiguous. This simple advice for writing
policies potentially adds to their chances of
being put into practice, which is ultimately what
policies are for.
Unhealthly lifestyles, particularly poor diet
and lack of exercise of people with schizophrenia
continue to remain an issue. In his qualitative
study in this issue, Abed seeks to understand
why this is the case. In recruiting service users,
their consultant and care co-ordinator and,
where possible, a family member Abed found
four main themes – a lack of motivation, the
effects of psychotic symptoms, lack of knowledge
concerning health-related issues and side effects
of medication. Getting past these negative effects
sets a real challenge for healthcare professionals
and Abed suggests the need to take a holistic
approach so that physical health monitoring and
health promotion and education activities are
delivered in parallel.
Sanghara and colleagues have found another
way for mental health services to save money
by reducing the high cost of non-attendance
at outpatient appointments. Their study
assesses the willingness of people with severe
and enduring mental health problems to use
mobile technology to remind them of their
clinical appointments. Of the 141 respondents
recruited, over 60% owned a mobile phone and
could use short message services, 80% of whom
were willing to receive a text from the hospital.
Interestingly, people with psychotic illness
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