RPS
Local resources to help support people to have better mental health have been produced, Public Health England (PHE) has announced.
‘The prevention concordat for better mental health: prevention planning resource for local areas’ document has been created following one of the recommendations in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health that local areas should have a prevention-focused approach to improving people’s mental health.
PHE said the prevention planning resource had been “developed to help local partners put in place effective arrangements to promote good mental health and prevent mental health problems”.
The resources include ways to prevent the onset, development and deterioration of mental health problems, promoting good mental health through strengthening individuals and communities, and reducing inequalities and the structural barriers to mental health.
‘The prevention concordat for better mental health programme’ has been overseen by an expert steering group including Faculty of Public Health, Local Government Association, and NHS England.
The resources are specifically focused on prevention of mental health problems and the promotion of mental health. They are designed to complement, but not replace, related resources such as PHE’s suicide prevention resources.
The resources have been developed using published evidence and feedback from people involved in mental health care. They focus on five areas that highlight “what good looks like” regarding preventing mental health problems. The areas are: needs and assets assessment, effective use of data and intelligence, partnership and alignment, translating needs and assets into joint ambition and commitments, defining success outcomes, and leadership and accountability.
Commenting on the resources, Professor David Taylor, director of pharmacy and pathology, head of Pharmaceutical Sciences Clinical Academic Group, King’s Health Partners, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This new venture is to be applauded”.
But he added that “it misses an opportunity to address what is probably the major cause of mental illness — childhood trauma, the experience or witnessing of verbal, physical or sexual abuse. Most of the measures outlined address events or conditions that occur after this early suffering”.
