SCIE media releases 2008

Creative commissioning will support better mental health advocacy for African and Caribbean men

13 March 2008

A creative approach to commissioning is needed to ensure that African and Caribbean men receive appropriate mental health advocacy services, says the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE).

A report published by SCIE last year revealed serious gaps in the provision of advocacy support services for African and Caribbean men - despite their over representation in the mental health system. New SCIE guidance launched today gives commissioners and providers information about how to fill these gaps by promoting cultural sensitivity, responding to diversity and understanding the local needs of an area.

Speaking about the new resource Commissioning and providing mental health advocacy for African and Caribbean men, Chief Executive of SCIE, Julie Jones, said:

“Mainstream advocacy services are often not equipped to respond to the diverse needs of their local community. Research has found that they often don’t directly address the issues that African and Caribbean men face, including discrimination, spirituality and inequality.

“Since SCIE launched its report last year, a lot of work has been done on developing structures to support this group. Our guidance highlights how mental health community development workers can identify the local needs of their communities and feed this information back into the commissioning process. Commissioners can use this guidance to plan holistic advocacy provision for African and Caribbean men, including planning for the new role of independent mental health act advocates (IMHAs).”

This resource guide will be launched today <13 March> at the 3rd Annual Delivering Race
Equality in Mental Healthcare (DRE) Conference. It will inform the upcoming work on mental health and race equality to be launched by the Department of Health (DH) later this year.

Click here to access Commissioning and providing mental health advocacy for African and Caribbean men.

Media contact

Annie Goss | Media and PR Manager | T: 020 7089 7117 | M:  07739 458 192 | Email: media@scie.org.uk