Closing the Gap: Priorities for essential change in mental health – SCIE response

21 January 2014

Responding to the Government’s priorities for essential change in mental health, SCIE chief executive, Tony Hunter, says:

We are all affected by it either personally, or through our friends and family. SCIE shares the Government’s drive to improve care and support in this area. Our work focuses on groups that are often overlooked - older people, and young people moving from children’s to adults’ services. Depression is often undiagnosed and untreated in older people, including those in care homes. And young people can feel unsupported when they transfer to adults’ mental health services.

Tony Hunter went on to say:

But that is not inevitable. For example, in some areas transition clinics have been set up to support young people as they move through the system. And in care homes, staff need to know how to identify the signs of depression and not to accept it as an inevitable part of the ageing process. SCIE’s guides, films and elearning resources include practical examples of what services and commissioners can do to improve the quality of care for adults and children with mental health problems.

Links

• Closing the Gap: Priorities for essential change in mental health
• SCIE resource: Older people and mental health