Developments in UK services - a UK perspective

This paper summarizes key recent policy and practice developments within general adult mental health services in United Kingdom. The National Service Framework For Mental Health, published in September 1999, provides a national blueprint for mental health services for adults of working age over the next decade. The fundamental principles underlying the framework are outlined, the key stakeholders are identified, and the seven standards are discussed. The standards apply to: mental health promotion, primary-care and access to services, severe mental illness, caring about carers, and preventing suicide. This new national policy is based upon the evidence of cost effective services and treatments. Such services can be described in terms of 5 categories of a Basic Service Profile: outpatient and community services, day services, acute inpatient services, longer-term residential services, and interfaces between services and agencies.