CM Mental Health

Independent mental healthcare providers should have been inspected under the new Care Quality Commission (CQC) regime by October 2015, according to chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards.

Autism care provider Brookdale Care is set to launch a complex care service, it announced last month.

As David Cameron and the rest of the leaders at the G8 prepare to discuss the complex and costly issues surrounding dementia, CCMn looks at what type of provision most suitable for caring for people at different stages of the disease and what are the key factors going forward to make this type of service the best it can be. According to the Alzheimer’s Society, there were 800,000 people in the UK suffering from dementia in 2012. This number is expected to rise to 1m by 2021 and 1.7m in 2051. But, argues director of care at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) John Kennedy, all these people will not be in or need to be specialist dementia units.

Bupa published a report to provide data for policy-makers and advice for individuals and their families. It is also hoped that it will provoke a debate on screening and other methods to improve diagnosis.

The Law Society has called for Deprivation of Liberty (DoL) applications to be extended to supported living facilities. At present only residents in hospitals and care homes can be subject to the safeguarding measure. But as the government seeks to move away from institutional care following the abuse and neglect uncovered at Winterbourne View (CCMn July 2011), the Law Society argues in a submission to a House of Lords Select Committee that powers need to be bolstered in supported living settings.

A survey of 13,000 community mental health service users has found that fewer people are now involved in their care plans (CPA) than in

Treating physical and mental health as separate entities is flawed according to a report by the Mental Health Foundation, published last month, which made a number of recommendations for improving integrated care. Crossing Boundaries: Improving integrated care for people with mental health problems found that good integrated care for people with mental health needs remains the exception rather than the rule. It called for a fundamental change in thinking about healthcare, and for commissioners and practitioners to recognise the benefits of integrated, holistic approaches to care that involve not just health and social care services, but factors such as education, employment, housing and poverty.

The government has published more detailed information on children’s care homes in an attempt, amongst other things, to stop the sexual exploitation of those living in them. Education Secretary Michael Gove said as full information as possible’ will now be published about the location, ownership and quality of children’s homes in England. He argued in the Daily Telegraph that this was necessary in order to foster transparency and public debate on the issue, as well as to improve care.

The latest figures show the number deprivation of liberty (DoL) applications have risen for the third year running. And more than half of the applications related to dementia patients.

Fewer than one in ten small housing associations have a strategy in place to support dementia sufferers or older people. A survey of 88 groups conducted by the Orbit Charitable Trust found only seven had a dementia strategy in place. Two-thirds of small housing associations admitted they did not have a dementia strategy drawn up with a quarter claiming that they did not need one. A further quarter of respondents said a strategy was being developed, while 12 said they had not yet thought about it. Most of the housing groups which responded to the survey said a separate dementia strategy was not necessary because of the size of their organisation. One said it dealt with cases on an individual basis, while another said dementia was dealt with as part of its older people’s strategy. The survey, which follows from Orbit’s research published last year into how housing associations and older people’s organisations can work better together to deliver better services, also found that half of the housing associations questioned do not have an older people’s strategy in place, while 28% do.