Mental health providers from across the public and voluntary sector urged to showcase services that ‘promote positive mental health’.
Mental health providers, commissioners, academics and advocacy groups are being urged to submit evidence to ministers to help formulate a new government mental health strategy aimed at improving services and investing in prevention measures.
Open until July 10, ministers said the call for evidence will support the cross-governmental strategy, which is the next stage in its 10 year plan programme of reform.
The exercise is aimed at gathering ‘practical examples and implementation evidence’ from across health, local government, education, workplaces and the voluntary sector, according to government guidance.
The strategy, described by ministers as a 'once-in-a-generation' plan, aims to address mounting demand, long waits and persistent inequalities in access, with government acknowledging that current services remain ‘reactive, fragmented and inconsistent’.
Central to the proposals is a shift towards earlier intervention and prevention, moving away from crisis-driven care. The strategy will align with the NHS reform agenda’s three core shifts: hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.
The government is asking for evidence on what works to promote good mental health and wellbeing, reduce the incidence and severity of mental health problems, and support people earlier, before needs escalate to crisis. This includes interest in effective approaches for children and young people, as well as how to reduce inequalities and improve access for groups who currently face poorer experiences and outcomes, such as those with ADHD and autism diagnoses.
It is also looking at how services are organised and delivered, with a strong emphasis on integration and experience. Respondents are asked to identify how mental health support can be better joined up across the NHS and wider systems such as social care, housing and education, reflecting the strategy’s cross-government scope.
It also calls for examples of how to improve access, reduce waiting times, and deliver more consistent, person-centred care, including better support for people with severe mental illness and those who struggle to access appropriate services.
The final area focuses on system enablers, including commissioning, funding, workforce and the use of data and digital tools. The government is seeking evidence on how to plan and resource services more effectively, how to support the workforce, and how innovation, including digital models of care, can complement existing provision.
The government said the strategy will be published ‘later this year’, and will include its response to to recommendations made by the independent review into mental health, ADHD and autism, chaired by psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist Professor Peter Fonagy, which is ‘examining the drivers of increasing demand and how government, the health system and wider public services can meet that demand more fairly and effectively’, and is expected to be published around the same time.