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Appendix

• Technical Appendix >

Resources

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The Mental Health Pathway

Wellbeing for all

1
This chapter (based on the work of the Mental Health CPG – full report available at www.yorksandhumber.nhs.uk) sets out what we need to do to make sure we provide the best possible mental health services.

The Case for Change

2
In England mental health problems result in greater loss of economic potential than any other condition – with lost output and high benefit payments. 13% of NHS spend is on MH services. Although 1 in 6 of us will have a mental health problem, mental health conditions remain some of the least understood in the community at large resulting in high stigma and isolation for some sufferers.

3
In Yorkshire & the Humber there is a higher than the national average suicide rate of 8.61 per 100,000 population as opposed to 8.25 nationally; the national rate is reducing but in this region it rose between 2003 and 2006.

4
Rates of self reported stress, depression and anxiety caused or made worse by work is one of the highest rates in the country.

5
Across Y&H there is considerable variation in the services provided in localities and the speed in which services have been modernised as illustrated by the following:

• Community mental health teams remain the building block of services for most people needing specialist care, but staff numbers do not reflect need in communities and resources do not reflect variation in demand.
• Despite the efforts of staff, Primary Care MH Teams are poorly developed and their role is poorly defined with few localities having planned and implemented services which are integrated with specialist services.
• Referral routes are overly complex with an onus on the referrer, (often a generalist practitioner) to be experts in service identification and placement. Services are organised into 'discrete building blocks' with artificial barriers between them that do not allow for easy flow through the care system. Referral processes are overly complex and unnecessary, with some GPs having to handle up to 29 different protocols for referral into mental health services

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