Mental health care progress made

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Community mental health services are getting better, a survey from the health watchdog suggests.

But access to counselling and support for carers is still poor, the Healthcare Commission warned.

The survey of almost 16,000 patients also highlighted a "worrying" lack of progress in helping people with mental illness access benefits or get work.

Mental health leaders admitted there were still problems with services but they were working to improve things.

Overall, 76% felt the services they received were "good", "very good" or "excellent".

Relationships between psychiatrists and their patients appear to be improving with steady year-on-year increases in the proportion of patients who believed they were listened to and respected.

It is appalling that individuals are not getting the necessary support to find employment or access the benefits to which they are entitled Kathryn Hill, Mental Health Foundation

And more people with complex mental health problems know who their care co-ordinator is and are being offered copies of their care plan.

More people had a care review in the past 12 months than had been reported in the last annual survey.

But in some areas there is still a lot of work to be done, the findings from 69 trusts suggested.

Half of patients still have no access to telephone-based out-of-hours crisis care.

And more than one in three patients who wanted counselling say they did not get it.

The figures also indicated a lack of progress in helping people with mental health problems access benefits with almost a third of those who wanted help not receiving it.

Also only 49% of those who wanted help finding work were offered it.

Around 40% of respondents said their relatives or carer had not received enough support from health and social services.

Room for improvement

Anna Walker, Chief Executive of the Healthcare Commission, said: "The general trends are encouraging, particularly given that many trusts are still getting to grips with providing care to service users within their own communities.

"But this shouldn't disguise the problems - problems that have been going on for too long.

"For instance, carers and family members can provide invaluable support to people with mental health problems.

"It's very important that they in turn receive the support they need; otherwise there is a risk that the burden becomes too great for them to manage."

She added there was also much more to be done in areas of social inclusion.

Steve Shrubb, director of the NHS Confederation's Mental Health Network, said patient satisfaction with the service was a credit to the hard work of NHS staff.

"However, as leaders in the provision of mental health care we must also recognise that problems still exist.

"There are still concerning gaps in the provision of counselling and out-of-hours crisis support for service users."

A Department of Health spokesperson said since 2001 they had invested an extra £1.9 billion in community mental health services.

But Kathryn Hill from the Mental Health Foundation said year on year there had been little improvement.

"It is appalling that individuals are not getting the necessary support to find employment or access the benefits to which they are entitled."

Marjorie Wallace, SANE's chief executive, said: "Evenings and weekends are the times when people feel isolated and most at risk of distress and suicide.

"In SANE's out of hours service we pick up on this unmet need, showing that the monies have not reached the front line."

Marcus Roberts, head of policy at Mind said he survey showed positive progress was being made.

"But, there are still too many cries for help by mental health service users going unanswered," he said.