Mental health services should not be diagnosis-led

As I said in a previous post, services for neurodiversity should be based on need rather than diagnosis-led. Demand for assessment for neurodiversity services, particularly in young people, is out of control. This situation is being exploited by unscrupulous business practices (see eg. another previous post). 

Services should actually be provided on the basis of need for all mental health problems, not just neurodiversity (see previous post). Non-medical approaches to mental health problems can be beneficial and not everyone who attends mental health services is necessarily wanting medication. There needs to be more collaboration between NHS and non-medical mental health services to provide  an ‘integrated front door’ to services.

Assessment for mental health services is primarily about providing understanding. It’s not only about giving a name to people’s problems through a diagnosis but also about gaining some appreciation of the reasons for those problems. Of course it may not be possible to be certain about the factors involved, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not important to try and understand them. A brain problem is rarely the cause of most psychiatric presentations. People should be supported by mental health services on the basis of their need not a one-word label.