Themes emerging from engagement on mental health
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This report was created by Healthwatch Southwark to collate the information it has gathered in its engagement activities with public and stakeholder consultation with respect to mental health.
The evidence on this topic is collated from the engagement activities where people have given their experiences, between the 1st April 2013, and 25th February 2016. It is arranged thematically, roughly following a pathway through services from access to discharge.
Some comments and issues from feedback include:
- People are worried that preventative and community support for those with mental health problems is inadequate and threatened.
- Concerns have often been raised about people with mental health problems having to ‘jump through a lot of hoops’ and wait a long time to get support.
- People are particularly concerned with being offered the right type of support, including talking therapies. Even when talking therapy is offered, it is not always the right kind.
The themes the feedback is divided into are as follows:
Timely access to appropriate services
Education, preventative and community support
Waiting times
Access to the right kind of talking therapies
Language barriers
Pressure on care coordinators
Attitudes in primary care
Being listened to and taken seriously
Tension between mental and physical health needs
Medications
Crisis care
Quality of inpatient care
Appropriateness and safety of inpatient and supported accommodation environments
The Mental Health Act, Deprivation of Liberty, and restraint
Discharge and ongoing support
Discharge from hospital
Discharge from the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT)
Support after discharge from hospital or the CMHT
Integration and coordination across services
Transitions from children’s to adults’ services
Privacy and confidentiality
Cultural understandings of mental illness
Stigma around mental illness
Impact of culture on mental health treatment outcomes
Consultation and complaints
Social causes and exacerbators of poor mental health