Support for Government’s mental health objectives

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) has ‘strongly supported’ the Government’s new national framework to improve mental health, published on 24 July.

The Department of Health framework, No Health without Mental Health, sets out six ‘high-level mental health objectives’ developed with local government partners among others.

These objectives include more people having good mental health, recovering from mental health problems, having good physical health despite mental health issues and having a positive experience of care and support services.

The Government also aims to have fewer care or support service users suffering avoidable harm and fewer people suffering stigma or discrimination because of mental health issues.

ADASS vice president, Sandie Keene, welcomed the framework and said: ‘We are also committed to supporting the link between implementation of the framework with all the current concerns surrounding troubled families, and transitions concerns as children and adolescents with mental health issues grow to adulthood.

‘We will support and champion mental health concerns in becoming an integral part of local government initiatives as we continue to discuss with central government the sustainable funding settlement needed to support prevention and early intervention in the longer term.’

The framework found social care and support service funding was a key issue at local level, reporting ‘dramatic differences between councils in their proportion of spend on long-term nursing and residential care’.

It went on to state: ‘Councils are expected to look closely at how they can reduce spend on residential care and increase community-based provision’.