A Future Vision for Mental Health

In the U.K. the Future Vision Coalition has produced a report A Future Vision for Mental Health aimed at influencing Government policy in this area. The coalition is made up of representatives from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Local Government Association and all the major mental-health charities. The report sets out four principles for reform including the ideas that:

• Improving mental health is everybody’s business and requires action across government
• Positive mental health should be promoted with early intervention when people become unwell
• Mental health services should help people fulfil their potential
• Service users and carers should shape their own support

It calls for a cabinet minister to champion mental-health improvements within Government and calls for a new public-service agreement specifying how Government services should boost mental-health and wellbeing. It calls for the Government's programme to improve access to psychological therapies to be extended to all client groups and throughout the country and for more mental-health training for teachers, police and social-care staff. It also says that the Government should help employers to recruit, support and retain people with experience of mental-health problems.

You can download a full copy of A Future Vision for Mental Health at

http://www.newvisionformentalhealth.org.uk/A_future_vision_for_mental_health.pdf