Mental Health 2017: Implementing the Five Year Forward View

Abstract

At the Mental Health 2017: Implementing the Five Year Forward View conference held in September 2017 at the Royal Society of Medicine, delegates were informed on the current government plans to focus attention on perinatal and children's mental health, to bring mental health care from institutions into the community and integrate physical and mental health services. Felix David here reports on some of the conference highlights.

Mental health services are failing the criminal justice system

“…Mental health services have been undermined by years of underfunding because of austerity, no parity of esteem with services for physical illness, and internal ideological battles over the need for inpatient beds2 and whether patients should be subject to “restrictive or “coercive” practices 34…”

“…Curiously, the report fails to mention forensic mental health provision, calling into question the effect, and indeed relevance, of the service currently responsible for the most serious and high risk offenders. Forensic mental health services receive 25% of the national mental health budget (over £1bn) for 6000 beds, two thirds of which are in the private sector 2. No data are available for admissions or discharges from these services, or the number of reports prepared for court.…”