Mental health services set for modernisation

“i remain shocked to read the assumption that people with mental health needs, can be packaged into local services near their home. Peopel cant just fit in to these tidy packages. They are chaotic by nature. and how is direct care delivered? Who will stay with a service user if they become unwell after 5pm at one of these centres? Or at weekends. Service users have a range of needs and do these centers have the range of staff to deal with them? Also winterbourne view is an example of where the private sector failed to recruit quality staff, the same for these centers. the suggestion of bunching people together with similar needs is laughable, peoples needs change daily. and also those needs may be the same but presented differently by groups of people based on age, culture, lifestyle.. And also what if someone has 3 different types of needs all at the same time.. how can specialist centers cater for them.. Sorry but this is again an example of the worried well planning for the worried well... go back to the drawing board please.”

“i am no expert in mental health care, but perhaps the price we have to pay for the NHS is a bit of waste.

This is surely worth it.”

“I think it will be positive, the private sector has a lot to offer and it is not all about cost, there will be a lot of competition to supply and so extreme cost will be ignored when companies tender as long as they do not overlook good service, In the private sector if organisations are not to large there is more opportunity for the companies to be transparent and if they do not provide a good service they can be removed from provision and another company will be waiting to take over services. The NHS is stretched to the limit and beyond, there are so many cuts to facilities and staff it is getting ridiculous and the poor care is beginning to show. I worked for the NHS and truly believed we are lucky, at the end of the day most of us pay for it throughout our lives but it is falling apart due to increased demand on services, change and tight budgets and overspending at the more managerial positions. To many chiefs and not enough Indians.
The Winterbourne down scandal was a private organisation that was far to large and there was no way the Management could monitor what was happening at all of their facilities, this needs to be stopped, big companies should be capped on the amount of homes/facilities one company can open and monitor them for a couple of years to see what kind of service is provided before they are allowed to open more. There are many simple solutions to make many improvements in the Mental Health Sector, maybe having an Independant Mental Health Commisioning Board would be the way to go, the board being Mental Health Professionals who are willing to give their time for free and there are many who would volunteer to improve and monitor care for sufferers. CQC needs a governing body to monitor them, they are understaffed and do not have the budget to monitor all health facilities in the UK and a lot of their staff carry out short training courses to be able to inspect, this is not good enough. They also do not always listen, but at most facilities, units and homes even in the NHS there are always managers and maybe they should be made more accountable in relation to when things go wrong, like sack them and legally charge them.
I think Privatisation is a good thing and maybe the NHS being the institution that it is has had control over to many sectors within it for too long. Any improvement in patient care is what everybody wants and improvement in services. Nobody ever gets it right all of the time but getting it right most of the time is a better option so it is about time othermaremgiven a chance.”

“Exactly. This article is praising the coming privatisation of mental health services. Teams are being disintegrated up and down the country, leaving only a purely medical model of mental health. this is coming at a time where risk matrices are telling us that integrated teams (health AND social care together) have more positive outcomes for service users, smoother communication and better risk management. Instead what is happening is that teams are being divided, and as this article beamingly tells us, will soon be run by more than one company, adding to the chaos. These are really dark times for public services and the media has a responsibility not to wave the flag for the privatisation that is de facto more interested in profit than care, as indicated in the Winterbourne case referenced above.”

“At first glancethis looks positive, and maybe it will be. However, in the wake of the Winterbourne View scandal, is it really wise to be handing over important services to groups who are less accountable. Who is going to regulate and monitor them. The CQC proved to be toothless in the Winterbourne View case, so how can we be sure that these services will be run by regulated healthcare professionals with sufficient experience, where necessary?”