mental health and mental health care
This study of older people's mental health services assessed available national data and visited specialist mental health trusts. The interview tool covered questions relation to several of the core standards used by the Healthcare Commission to assess trusts' performance.
The key findings are reported in four main themes: age discrimination, the quality of inpatient care, the comprehensiveness of services; and working with other organisations (how specialist services worked with primary care, adult social services and acute hospitals).
The Health and Social Care Act 2008 provided for regulations extending direct payments. This consultation, held between August and November 2008, questioned people about revising the existing regulations to allow a greater number of people to take advantage of direct payments.

