Mental Health Services Praised

The quality of Dorset’s mental health services was revealed in a new survey. The Healthcare Comm-ission asked NHS users about their experiences as part of a national survey. It covered such areas as treatment, relationship with psychiatrists and out-of-hours care.

The results showed Dorset Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust as one of the best performing mental health trusts in the country, with more than half of those questioned rating the service good or very good. But the commission and campaigners said concerns remained over social inclusion and access to counselling.

Trust chief executive Roger Browning said: “We are delighted with these results, showing we continue to provide consistently high standards even though the money we are allocated per head of population is among the lowest in the country. To get such a ringing endorsement from so many service users and carers reflects tremendous credit to our staff who work very hard.”

The results make the trust one of the top 20 per cent in the country. Ninety-six per cent of patients questioned said they felt psychiatrists listened to them carefully, with a similar number saying they felt confidence in professionals they saw. But more than half – 59 per cent – said they had received no counselling sessions from the service in the last 12 months, and 37 per cent said they had received no care review in the same period – they are supposed to happen every six months.

A lack of information about local support groups was also identified. Forty-five per cent of people said they would have liked information about such groups, but didn’t get it.

But Timon Hughes-Davies, Dorset executive officer for mental health charity Mind, said this could be because there are very few support groups in Weymouth. He said: “Running support groups can be challenging in small communities and they are not so well provided outside cities.”

He said Mind was pleased to see continuing improvements in Dorset, but more needed to be invested in providing psychological therapies as an alternative to medication.