The proposed NHS Constitution will make it a legal right to receive treatments recommended by NICE. This will mark a particularly radical improvement for people affected by mental illness. Right now NICE says people with schizophrenia should be given a choice about medication but a new Rethink survey shows only 33% are actually getting that choice. The vast majority aren't offered any alternatives, and often have to put up with horrible side-effects that might be avoidable.
Lord Darzi has set the course for future mental health care with a review that for the first time puts mental health at the heart of the NHS. However, leading mental health charity Mind warns that there are still areas of inequality on the road ahead that must be urgently addressed. For example, the conditions of some inpatient wards where vulnerable patients are routinely accommodated on mixed sex wards are unacceptable.
Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis congratulated the NHS on major improvements in key mental health services today. His message came as he cut the turf to mark the construction of a new mental health unit at Runwell Hospital in Wickford, Essex. Latest figures show that, for 2007-08: - Specialist crisis resolution home treatment teams provided 106,000 home treatments, supporting people who would otherwise have had to be admitted to hospital.
Dr. Mariana Pereira, postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers University in Newark (CMBN), is the recent recipient of a "2008 Young Investigator Award" from NARSAD, The World's Leading Charity Dedicated to Mental Health Research (previously known as the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression). NARSAD is the world's leading donor-supported organization dedicated to funding research on psychiatric disorders.