Other research information

Healthcare Commission

The Healthcare Commission is the independent inspection body for both the NHS and independent healthcare sector. Here are two of their key mental health research projects:

Count Me In
There has been concern for many years about large differences in patterns of mental health and in the use of mental health services, particularly among people from black and minority ethnic groups. These differences still exist.

This census, the first of its kind, was intended primarily to achieve two things: to encourage sustainable, high quality ethnic assessment and monitoring; and to provide a baseline against which we can measure changes in mental health care in the future.

National Mental Health Survey Programme 
The Healthcare Commission has a statutory duty to assess the performance of healthcare organisations in the NHS and award annual ratings of performance. The Healthcare Commission must also coordinate inspections and reviews of healthcare organisations carried out by others, and register organisations providing healthcare in the independent sector on an annual basis.

The Commission has created an entirely new approach to assessing and reporting on the performance of healthcare organisations - the annual health check – which will examine a much broader range of factors enabling us to focus on what really matters to patients and the public. The information from the community survey of mental health service users will provide performance indicators for the annual health check.


Social Exclusion Unit

The Prime Minister set up the Social Exclusion Unit in 1997. Since then the Unit has led innovative thinking in addressing some of society's most difficult problems. The work of the Social Exclusion Unit includes projects to tackle specific issues and wide-ranging programmes to assess past policy and identify future trends, including:

Mental Health and Social Exclusion
This study investigates what can be done to improve the lives and experiences of adults with mental health problems.
The Social Exclusion Unit's final report on Mental Health and Social Exclusion has now been published, setting out the Government's programme of action. The project was undertaken in close partnership with the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE).


Mental Health Act Commission

The Mental Health Act Commission is responsible for keeping under review the implementation of the Mental Health Act 1983 as it relates to patients who are detained or are liable to be detained. They have a number of responsibilities and have adopted the mission statement ‘safeguarding the interests of all people detained under the Mental Health Act’.

In Place of Fear
This report is based upon the MHAC’s visits to detained psychiatric patients in all hospitals in England and Wales in the two years 2003-05. It sets out the MHAC’s observations and concerns about current and future mental health care involving compulsion.


Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health

The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health works to improve the quality of life for people with mental health problems. They carry out research, analysis, training and development to improve practice and influence policy in public services.

Their work focuses on those areas where the greatest difference to people’s lives can be made. It ranges from national research into the key issues in mental health to local development projects that tackle some of the most difficult issues services face. Recently the SCMH work programme has begun to target mental health relating to employment and to prisons.

Addressing Disincentives to Work, Sainsbury Centre
This briefing paper is for staff working with people with mental health problems, based within mental health, housing, employment or other support services. It provides information on:

• the disincentives to work associated with the welfare benefits system
• ways of minimising or overcoming these barriers to work
• other financial help which may be available
• sources of useful information.

Acute Care 2004, Sainsbury Centre
Commissioned by the National Institute for Mental Health in England Acute Inpatient Care Programme, this is a major new report on acute inpatient services across the country. Survey findings include staffing levels, the impact of community teams, therapies and activities and ward environment.

Search for Acute Solutions
The Sainsbury Centre has launched 'The Search for Acute Solutions', a three year project (2002-5) to improve acute inpatient care, in partnership with the Department of Health, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Nursing, the NHS Confederation and the College of Occupational Therapists.

Four acute inpatient units, one each in four NHS trusts, were selected to work in partnership with the Sainsbury Centre to develop solutions to the issues facing acute inpatient care, so that service users experience therapeutic, safe and humane care and staff are valued and able to use their skills.

Acute Problems  
The Sainsbury Centre followed over 200 patients through their stay on an acute ward, discovering how they were admitted, what treatment they received and how they were discharged. Their report ‘Acute Problems’ highlights a lack of integration between hospital and community services, showing how beds were often occupied by people who did not need to be in hospital but who could not be discharged due to a lack of suitable alternatives.

Their research also found that 40 per cent of all patients undertook no social or recreational activity during their stays, many patients felt unsafe and wards lacked many basic amenities such as separate bedrooms, secure lockers for personal possessions and quiet areas.


King's Fund

The King’s Fund is an independent charitable foundation working for better health (including mental health), especially in London. They aim to evaluate progress in mental health care from an independent perspective, provide practical solutions, and broker debate about how to develop best practice.

London's State of Mind
In 1997, a King's Fund inquiry expressed serious concerns about mental health services under extreme pressure, including long delays and gaps in key areas such as crisis support. This report presents the findings of a two-year inquiry into how far London's mental health needs and services have come since then. It offers a comprehensive overview of substantial changes to policy and governance structures in London and nationally, and probes the special challenges posed by London's population.

A Question of Numbers
Compulsory community-based treatment orders require patients at risk of harming themselves or others to comply with a set of conditions, such as taking their medication, while living in the community. The draft Mental Health Bill 2004 incorporates plans to introduce compulsory orders in England and Wales, but it is not clear how many people could be drawn into compulsory treatment as a result.

This report sheds some light on how many people in England and Wales could become subject to non-residential orders if the Bill becomes law, drawing on examples from countries around the world with similar systems already in place.


Shift

Shift is run by the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE). It is funded by, and works with, the Department of Health. Shift aims to create a society where everyone enjoys the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.

Mind Over Matter  
This survey provides an insight into the way the news and factual mass media cover mental health issues and portray people with mental health problems.

It not only examines the kind of coverage that appears but also uncovers a great deal about the way journalists and producers go about covering mental health issues and the way members of the public receive and are influenced by that coverage. Three national mental health organisations, the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, Mental Health Media and Rethink, were commissioned to carry out the survey.


Mental Health Foundation

The Foundation’s research team uses quantitative and qualitative research to develop understanding of how people can survive, recover from and prevent mental health problems.

Within the Foundation research findings are used to inform policy and practice development work. The research team is also committed to communicating findings through in-house, peer review and professional publications.

Strategies for Living, Mental Health Foundation
Following on from the Knowing Our Own Minds survey of users and survivors of mental health services, a team of survivor researchers and interviewers carried out in-depth interviews with over 70 people with experience of mental distress. This is the first report to emerge from those interviews.

Giving depth and detail to the findings of the first survey, this report identifies people’s main supports, coping strategies and sources of help, and concludes by offering recommendations for service development and staff training. This report is testament to the value of service users and survivors taking the lead in carrying out research in mental health.