BRIEFING NOTE
7 May 2009
Purpose: To produce practical guidance for PCT and Local Authority Commissioners that will support them in making local decisions about mental health improvement and the development and provision of local mental health promotion and prevention services and interventions. This guidance will aim to form one part of a suite of World Class Commissioning Guidance that aims to help embed health and wellbeing implementation into the NHS system with support from partner agencies.
Wider Policy Context: The Government is committed to improving health and wellbeing and to keeping people well and preventing ill-health. Lord Darzi's report High Quality Care For All - NHS Next Stage Review Final Report identified six lifestyle challenges to improving health and wellbeing. Mental health was one of them. The implementation challenge includes recognising the benefits of stronger mental health promotion action to addressing inequalities, to general wellbeing and to physical health. World Class Commissioning through, the ‘Commissioning Framework for Health and Well-Being', and ‘World Class Commissioning supports improving mental health and wellbeing of the general population and aims to help achieve the NHS vision of delivering a health and care system that is fair and effective, helping to significantly reduce inequalities between the areas with the worst health and the population as a whole. The work also helps contribute to the NHS Operating Framework 2009/10 and Public Service Agreements to enable commissioners to demonstrate outputs and outcomes in relation to health and wellbeing. The current economic downturn and financial climate also make this work important as more people will be at risk of poor mental wellbeing and mental health problems due to the added pressures from financial uncertainty, debt and or loss of employment.
Mental Health Policy Context: The work forms part of the developing New Horizons Programme of Work and helps to continue the momentum established under Standard 1 and Standard 7 of the National Service Framework for Mental Health, specifically mental health promotion and the prevention of suicide. The work aims to provide a practical means of supporting the implementation of the wellbeing and public mental health aspirations of New Horizons and the developing Public Mental Health Framework in ways that complement the continuing emphasis on improving the quality, effectiveness and access to care and treatment services for people living with and recovering from mental illness.
Background: The importance of addressing mental wellbeing as a central strand of a comprehensive approach to health and mental health is now recognised internationally. This builds on the understanding that mental wellbeing is more than the absence of mental illness and as the World Health Organisation has outlined is a state "in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community". The 2005 WHO Mental Health Declaration signed by 52 Member States including the UK outlines improving population mental wellbeing as one of the main priorities for mental health in Europe for the next decade.
Purpose of the guide: Both health and social care commissioners face a potentially daunting challenge in focusing commissioning strategies on improving services, promotion and prevention and population health and wellbeing. The purpose of this guide is to provide practical commissioning guidance on how to focus on mental wellbeing as a key strand of commissioning activity for health and wellbeing. The guide will provide a summary of the key policy messages; the supporting evidence; information about relevant protective and risk factors and evidence about interventions in a practical and useful format.
Who is the guidance aimed at? This guidance is aimed primarily at local authority and primary care (and mental health) commissioners and specialists in public health. It will also be relevant to other stakeholders who need to know the commissioning process, for example, those with provider roles and the voluntary or third sector.
How is the guide being developed? Professor Chris Heginbotham and Karen Newbigging, from the International School for Communities, Rights and Inclusion (ISCRI) at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) have been appointed to develop the guidance. They are engaging with PCTs and local authorities, mental health promotion and public health specialists and those with expertise in commissioning, mental health promotion, wellbeing and public mental health. The guide is also being developed through a series of seminars with commissioners and other stakeholders across three Regions throughout May. The North West, West Midlands and London. A final draft will be presented to a Project Steering Group in June. Following this, further development, testing and refinement of the guidance will take place with NHS, Local Authority, World Class Commissioning and Mental Health colleagues.
When will the guide be published? The aim is to publish the guidance in Early 2010 as part of WCC guidance and as a key early part of the New Horizons Programme.
How can you get involved? For more information please contact Gregor Henderson
