Implementing the Acute Inpatient Strategy: Based on in interview with
| Published date | 01 March 2003 |
| Date | 01 March 2003 |
| Pages | 17-21 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200300004 |
| Author | Malcolm Rae,Paul Rooney |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Implementing the Acute
Inpatient Strategy
Based on an interview with
Malcolm Rae
Acute Inpatient Care Programme Lead
National Institute for Mental Health
England
and
Paul Rooney
Director of Planning, South Birmingham
Mental Health NHS Trust,
Acute Inpatient Care Programme Lead
National Institute for Mental Health
England
Face to face
Introduction
The dilemmas of acute mental health inpatient care
have received much deserved attention, particularly
over the past five years. The drive to develop
community services has undoubtedly been at the
expense of hospital care environments and the
capacity of services to meet service users’
expectations. The Mental Health Policy Implementation
Guide: Adult Acute Inpatient Care Provision (Department
of Health, 2002a) follows a series of reports concerned
about inpatient care including the National Service
Framework (NSF) for Mental Health (Department of
Health, 1999b) and the Report of the Standing Nursing
and Midwifery Advisory Committee (SNMAC, 1999).
The acute care guidance provides a definitive
statement of intent to promote change that will
improve the experience of care for everyone involved.
The guidance in policy context
The status of the guidance alongside other priorities
appears at first sight a little unclear when we have
‘must do’ targets for the development of early
intervention, assertive outreach, and crisis
response/home treatment teams. The need to produce
the inpatient guidance stems from a drive for balanced
attention to a whole system of acute care provision. In
clarification of its status, the guidance:
■is one of three themed reviews for NSF Local
Implementation Teams
■is one of five national programmes for the
National Institute for Mental Health (England)
(NIMHE)
■was launched by the minister in terms of
standards for mental health services
■was launched at the same time as the report on
Psychiatric Intensive Care Units describing clear
standards for the most custodial and restrictive
element of our acute care system outside
forensic services (Department of Health,
2002b).
In addition, we currently have a government that has
prioritised mental health in the NHS Plan
(Department of Health, 2000) and has injected
probably more real recurring monies into mental
health services than ever before.
The guidance is punctuated with examples of good
practice and the text provides a sound agenda for key
The Mental Health Review Volume 8 Issue 1 March 2003 ©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 2003 17
To continue reading
Request your trial