mental health care

Key messages: overview of mental health services

Key messages are presented from a study looking at mental health services provided by the NHS, councils, prisons, the police and the voluntary sector across Scotland for all ages. The study examines the accessibility and availability of mental health services and how much is spent on them.

The report provides an overview of mental health services and is the first in a series of planned reports in this area. The researchers carried out an overview to highlight areas for improvement and to identify priorities for future audit work.

A missed opportunity?: community sentences and the mental health treatment requirement

The Mental Health Treatment Requirement (MHTR) is one of 12 options (‘requirements’) available to sentencers when constructing a Community Order or a Suspended Sentence Order. The MHTR can be given to an offender with mental health problems who does not require immediate compulsory hospital admission under the Mental Health Act. If they give their consent, the MHTR requires them to receive mental health treatment for a specified period.

Cost-effectiveness and mental health

This report asks why cost-effective analysis is useful in the field, considers it in relation to other evaluations, and discusses depression treatment, intervention for child and adolescent mental health problems, hospital closure and helping decision makers connect with the evidence, ending with recommendations on stakeholder relevance, expanding the evidence base, expanding and adapting existing evidence, methodological challenges and improving linkages and exchange between research and policy-making.

Mental health and employment

This report presents findings of a qualitative research project commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to investigate the relationship between mental health and employment. The research was conducted during 2007 by the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York and the Institute for Employment Studies.