Shifting mental health policy

I've mentioned the Beyond Pills All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in a previous post. It has recently launched a report entitled Shifting the Balance Towards Social Interventions: A Call for an Overhaul of the Mental Health System. There is a YouTube video available of the excellent launch event of the report, which included presentations by Dainius Pūras (see eg. previous post) and Michelle Funk (see eg. another previous post). 

Mental health practice does need to be rethought (see previous post). Understanding about mental health problems needs to be improved, including what children are told about mental illness (see eg. previous post). The Mental Health Act also needs to be reformed (see another previous post). Rights and recovery-orientated services need to be at the centre, not the margins of mental health services, as currently.

Mental health services need to be realigned with better strategic direction to make them more functional and integrated. For example, there needs to be a mental health hub and community mental health team (CMHT) in each Primary Care Network (PCN). CMHTs have become too large and need to be devolved more locally, alongside non-medical services in the hubs.