Editorial
| Published date | 01 March 2003 |
| Date | 01 March 2003 |
| Pages | 2-2 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200300001 |
| Author | Elizabeth Parker |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Editorial
of its status vis à vis other guidance are explained by two
people closely involved with its development, Malcolm
Rae and Paul Rooney, who are interviewed by Roy
Butterworth in Face-to-Face.
A comprehensive overview of adult inpatient
psychiatric care is given by Penny West in the
Framework Feature where she sets out the current
situation and the historical context of the guidance as
well as giving examples of initiatives currently being
undertaken to improve the experience of inpatient care
for both patients and staff. Penny was responsible for
setting up the National Mental Health Acute Inpatient
Practice Development Network, a joint venture between
the Centre for Mental Health Services Development and
the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and
Midwifery, both at King’s College London, with the aim
of developing practical, evidence-based skills with a
stronger user focus and for supporting organisations in
effecting change. Some of her examples draw on this
work, as does Ron Howard’s account of refocusing as a
means of improving acute inpatient care and Bernie
Delord’s description of four projects undertaken by
Cornwall Healthcare NHS Trust. Finally, Kath Vardi
examines what needs to be done to improve acute
inpatient mental health services for women in the light of
the recent specific guidance on women’s services.
Government guidance is just that – guidance, and it is
noticeable that all the projects to bring about change in
adult acute mental health services are small scale and
local. It seems that it is action at the grassroots that holds
most promise for realising the services we desire. As
Better Services for the Mentally Ill (Department of Health
and Social Security, 1975) puts it: ‘It is the staff who …
may well prove to be the pioneers, providing they are
given the resources and opportunity to participate in new
developments … into better ways of providing care and
treatment in the context of a local service.’ To which we
would add – not only the staff but service users too.
Elizabeth Parker
2The Mental Health Review Volume 8 Issue 1 March 2003 ©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 2003
elcome to the first issue of the new-
look Mental Health Review. We now have more pages and
a spine to celebrate the start of our eighth year of
publication. In response to what you have told us, the
themed approach will continue but there will also be one
or two articles outside the theme so as to broaden the
appeal of the Review. I also hope that we will continue to
bring some interesting books to your attention.
In this issue Edward Peck has contributed a wide-
ranging assessment of mental health services which
covers our inheritance and the present context in which
mental health services now operate. He also identifies
the influences that he considers will shape mental health
services of the future and concludes that the notion of
recovery provides the most promising foundation for an
effective and acceptable service. (For a detailed account
of the recovery concept see the Framework Feature by
Piers Allott and Linda Loganathan in the June 2002
issue). It is fitting that we start off the year with such an
authoritative Personal Perspective from a founder of the
Review. Edward has now departed from the Institute for
Applied Health and Social Policy to take over as director
of the Health Services Management Centre. We wish
him well in his new post.
The theme of this issue is Improving Acute Inpatient
Care. For over a quarter of a century the focus of
attention has been on developing care in the community
during which time the hub of mental health services has
shifted from the psychiatric units to the CMHTs.
Throughout this period acute inpatient beds featured as
part of the overall service plan, but the flow of resources
to the new community services meant that they became
neglected, run down and under-staffed. The publication
of The Mental Health Policy Implementation Guide: Adult
Acute Inpatient Care Provision (Department of Health,
2002) is a definitive attempt to improve matters and is of
course an extension of other recent guidance, particularly
the National Service Framework for Mental Health
(Department of Health, 1999). The principles
underlying the inpatient care guidance and a clarification
W
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