Charity chiefs slam North Lincolnshire mental health care

A “REVOLVING door” mental health system in North Lincolnshire is damaging the long-term health of patients with serious disorders according to a leading charity.

Figures from Mental Health Minimum Dataset (MHMDS) show just ten of 2,429 Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber Mental Health Trust (RDASH) patients on the Care Approach programme were currently receiving follow-up care after leaving hospital, the lowest in the UK.

The Care Approach Programme is provided to patients with serious mental health needs such as obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and psychosis etc.

RDASH have claimed the figures were down to data entry errors, but mental health charity Rethink have said more needs to be done to protect at-risk patients.

Antonia Borneo, Rethink policy manager said: “It is far more costly to leave people high and dry who will then get ill again and go right back to needing hospital care. No-one gains, the most vulnerable people go in and out of hospital, tax payers pay more and valuable resources are wasted.”

RDASH hit back at the claims, saying adequate provisions were in place and that the NHS-backed figures were not representative.

Jane Stapleton, head of communications for RDASH, said: “Mental health services in North Lincolnshire have a strong track record of supporting mental health service users and securing appropriate settled accommodation for them.”