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A quarterly review of recent and forthcoming developments within mental health policy.

A quarterly review of recent and forthcoming developments within mental health policy.

The UK government's Mental Health Act 2007 introduces compulsory supervised community treatment (SCT) to England and Wales. Estimates of the possible level of use of SCT are helpful both to address patient fears and to plan services. The number of patients under SCT is likely to rise over time, although the level of use will depend on a number of contextual variables and whether evidence of clinical and social benefits is forthcoming.

This paper aims to review recent and forthcoming developments in mental health policy across the UK.

The paper summarises and comments on recent policy documents and initiatives.

The paper suggests how changes to policy might impact on mental health services.

The paper updates knowledge of recent and forthcoming mental health policy.

A quarterly review of recent and forthcoming developments within mental health policy.

A quarterly review of recent and forthcoming developments within mental health policy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a quarterly review of recent or forthcoming policy developments in mental health and social inclusion issues.

The author describes and comments on the most significant recent policy developments from within the UK that impact on mental health services and people with mental health needs.

The paper finds that the NHS reforms in England could cause some problems for the implementation of the new English mental health strategy; Northern Ireland and Scotland are both in a position to develop new mental health frameworks and Wales is implementing new statutory rights for mental health service users.

This paper summarises some recent policy developments in mental health across the UK.

A quarterly review of recent and forthcoming developments within mental health policy.

This paper aims to set out the views of approved mental health professionals (AMHPs) on the impact of supervised community treatment (SCT) on their work and their patients' lives in the community.

The study covered a total of 56 community treatment order (CTO)‐related activities undertaken in 2010 in a local social services authority (LSSA) in the north west of England, and looked at data from the records of 25 CTO patients. Nine AMHPs responded to a CTO outcomes questionnaire and five participated in a focus group.

The characteristics of CTO patients in this LSSA study were consistent with national data. AMHPs were often undecided about the benefits of CTOs to their patients. A majority agreed that CTOs could benefit patients by earlier identification of relapse, improving access to housing and reducing the risk of avoidable harm to self or others. However, a majority also agreed that CTOs had not improved patients' access to employment, education, training or recreational activities; nor had they helped reduce the stigma and discrimination that patients faced.

This was a relatively small‐scale study. However, its findings are consistent with previous work in this area, and provide pointers to how SCT can be more effectively implemented across England.

There is very little published research into the impact of SCT in England. Although small in scale, this study provides valuable insights into the views of AMHPs, who play a core role in the CTO process.