Information about Mental Health Service Use in England
Detailed intelligence about the prevalence of mental illness, the provision of services, the treatment given and its outcomes is needed now as never before. It is crucial not only to establish whether the needs of people mental health problems are being met effectively but also to steer the transformation of England's mental health service set out in the National Service Framework (NSF) for Mental Health1 and the NHS Plan.
Mental ill health is widespread; common problems affecting about 1 in 7 adults and severe mental illness affecting about one percent of the adult population. Mental health problems have complex causes and effects, involving social and economic circumstances as well as physical and mental health. Thus effective interventions require the participation of a broad range of health and social care agencies across statutory and voluntary sectors.
To plan, commission, provide and manage such services requires detailed data. It is possible for individual organisations to collect new data to answer specific questions, but this is time consuming and expensive, and interpretation of the results often requires comparators. Much data is already collected in the form of a wide range of national statistical returns. The only barriers to free and immediate use of this data are knowledge of its existence and location, and the technical capability to analyse it appropriately. This report seeks to survey data that is available nationally and to consider the extent to which it is currently, or could easily be made available in the forms that would most effectively assist statutory agencies in their work.
This Scoping Study of Mental Health Data was carried out by the Centre for Public Mental Health at the University of Durham for the Northern & Yorkshire Public Health Observatory. The scoping was in two parts: a survey of local potential users of the data and a review of data sources currently available. The data sources were then used for a 'worked example' to describe what is known of mental health problems and care, looking at the Northern and Yorkshire Region wherever possible. From the emerging themes, the function of the Observatories in increasing access to mental health data is explored
Mental Health full report pdf file
|
