Campaigners back a committee of MPs call for a severe mental illness one-stop-shop community pilot to be extended
Neighbourhood mental health centre pilots should be extended to allow proper evaluation of impact, ministers have been warned.
Campaigners have backed a committee of MPs’ call for a 12-month extension of the 24/7 one-stop shop model pilot designed to support adults living with severe mental health (SIM), with a view to creating an evidence base to underpin their roll out to ‘every community’.
The initial six-centre pilot was due to end last month.
People with SMI experience some of the widest health inequalities in England, with life expectancy around 15 to 20 years shorter than that of the general population, and the gap is widening, according to NHS England.
Responding to the Health Select Committee report on community mental health, the government said Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) will have ‘flexibility’ to invest £473m funding in new models of care in line with its neighbourhood health reforms available over the next four years.
The government said ICBs will be expected to invest the budget in ways that suit the needs of their population, and has recently published SMI prevalence statistics, showing ‘modelled estimate’ figures for three ‘condition groups’ (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other psychoses) across government regions in England (See table and map).
However, mental health charity Rethink has said the pilots did not run for long enough to provide enough evidence of impact and should be extended until April 2027.
The government has recently set out how it wants mental health care to be delivered much closer to home, as part of integrated neighbourhood health services. The government framework treats mental health as a priority long‑term condition, alongside CVD, diabetes, COPD and dementia, and has set out how it wants more care to be provided proactively in single point of access community settings.
It has set a target for ten per cent overall improvement in clinical outcomes for people with mental health conditions, but has said more detailed specific metrics will be set out later this year as part of a Modern Service Framework for Severe Mental Illness.