Five Year Mental Health Improvement Plan
By Liz Lockhart
The NHS Lothian has teamed up with patients and voluntary organizations to construct an action plan for the next five years.
The strategy to improve the care of mental health patients has identified several areas which can be improved. Health chiefs are aware that the quality of care provided in psychiatric hospitals has ever increasing expectations.
Many patients’ conditions are becoming more complex and as a consequence ‘The Sense of Belonging’ document wants more of the general population to enjoy good mental health. It also aims for patients to enjoy a positive experience of the care and support that they receive along with a speedier and more thorough recovery.
The consultation exercise involved six hundred people from across the Lothians. Other priorities like stigma, avoidable harm and the links between mental and physical health were examined.
These objectives will have to be achieved as budgets are reduced the paper acknowledges.
The strategic programme manager for mental health and wellbeing at NHS Lothian, Linda Irvine said:
‘The strategy sets out a clear view, principles and planned ways of working on mental health and wellbeing in the Lothians during the next five years.’
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