Impact Health and Social Care Services on the Nation’s Health
Instructions: This section of a report is about UK mental health services, so please use only UK policies such as Mental Health Act and Community Care Act, NOT international policies.
Please do not include introduction and conclusion as this is the middle part of the report.
2.1 Evaluate the impact of the current Health and Social Care services on the Nation’s Health
2.2 Identify key government policies and analyse the effects they have on health and social care provision.
3. Understand the organization of local Health and Social Care services
3.1 Evaluate the relationship between structures delivering primary and secondary health care
• Health and Social Care Services and the Nation’s Mental Health (300 words) (2.1) In this section you need to evaluate service provision by exploring the numbers of people with a mental illness diagnosis, and explain whether the evidence suggests that they are well cared for or not.
• Government Policies and Social Care Provision (300 words) (2.2) In this section you need to identify government policies and analyse their effect on service provision. E.g. how does the policy of moving people into community care effect the service a person can have. ( 2 policies Mental Health act and Community care act; and can include case studies of mentally ill patients eg. Christopher Clunis – Schizophrenic patient stabbed Jonathan Zito 1992. )
• The Relationship between Primary and Secondary Mental Health Care (300 words) (3.1) In this section you need to evaluate local (Medway and Kent area in UK) primary and secondary services, and evaluate how well they work together to provide care.
Solution
Impact Health and Social Care Services on the Nation’s Health
Mental health patients receive care facilitation in a number of ways, through Health and Social care services. There are 57 mental health trusts and 86 independent mental health hospitals that are registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC, 2015). The CQC further indicates that as of 31st March 2015, there were 19,656 detained inpatients. Apart from inpatients, there are also outpatients. Detention of inpatients is guided by the Mental Health Act, whereby it was used more than 58,000 times in the year 2014/15. The Care Quality Commission report provides insight into service provided to mental illness patients, although it mainly focuses on adherence to the Mental Health Act. Based on the evidence presented in the report, it would appear that patients with mental illness diagnosis are generally well cared for. For instance, the CQC points out that it had found numerous examples of improvements on services, citing an instance where patients had been provided with a Wi-Fi connection. They also found evidence of support and protection of patient’s rights, all astute indicators of the good quality of care.
While in general, there is proper care for patients, there are still many areas of concern in the provision of service. One problem area that has been pointed out is medication and treatment practices. The CQC reports that capacity assessment for medication during patient admission was lacking in 32% of the total cases assessed. Another area is in the facilitation of support to patients to enhance their involvement in their care. The type of facilitation envisioned here includes the type of information patients receive, and external support (CQC, 2015). This lack of facilitation has a detrimental effect since it could hamper patient recovery. Other effects include lengthened stays in the hospital as well as poor discharge, and an elevated risk of readmission.
Key Government Policies
The UK government has been active in developing policies regarding health and social care provision. In particular, the policies regarding social care in the UK appear to target the setting up of an interagency inter-professional workforce (Tope & Thomas, 2007). Apart from government policies, there are a number of laws governing the provision of health services and care. An example of this is the National Health Services Act. Another more confined act in terms of its scope is the Mental Health Act 1983, which mainly targets health care and service provision to patients diagnosed with mental illness.
As part of its efforts to support the interagency and inter-professional framework, the government has introduced several initiatives. For example, several mechanisms were introduced into the National Health Service Act (1977) towards this end. Sections 28A and 28BB enabled the transfer of money between NHS and local authorities (Tope & Thomas, 2007). Furthermore, under section 31 of the Act, introduced in 1999, there are three new mechanisms which have the same aim. They include pooled budgets, integrated service provision, and lead commissioning. The effects of these mechanisms are to improve efficiency in service delivery, by reducing the barriers associated with collaborative working between these different agencies and staff in local authorities.
The Mental Health Act has had a profound impact on improving the quality of care that mentally ill patients receive. For instance, there was a 10% year over year increase from 2014 to 2015 in the number of people detained in accordance with the act (CQC, 2015). One of the most significant impacts of the Mental Health Act is that it has severely redacted the level of freedom patients, through provisions which restrict the rights of individuals.
The organization of local Health and Social Care services
Primary health care and secondary health care differ fundamentally in the nature of care received. Primary care is the first point of a contact with a health professional for a patient suffering from a particular illness. It is the gateway to receiving specialist care. A patient may be referred to a secondary care professional, in the event that the primary care provider perceives there is a need to do so. The secondary care provider usually possesses expertise in the issue facing the patient.
The Kent and Medway area has a large number of patients with mental illness, with 163000-190000 people suffering from common mental health problems. A majority of patients with mental health needs receive care from the primary care GPs. In the event that these patients require specialized care, then these GPs will refer the patients to secondary health care providers (White, 2013). In Medway, these referrals are made to the Medway Integrated Mental Health Service, which further accept referrals from other parties, including self-screen referrals. Medway has an elaborate referral system which sets out the various organs to which primary practitioners can make referrals. These organs include the Alcohol Services, eating Disorders Services and the Mental Health Services for Learning Disability. Each of these organs has its own set of eligibility criteria, which set out which patients qualify for referral to that particular entity.
An
alternate interplay in the movement of patients occurs during recovery. While
the norm is that patients move from primary care practitioners to secondary
care practitioners, as patients recover, they may move back to their GP. The
NHS in Medway and Kent area commits itself to supporting GP practices so that
they are able to take back the management of patients from secondary care
services (NHS, 2013). The various
frameworks set in place create a synergistic relationship that improves the
overall quality of care that patients receive.
References
CQC. (2015). Monitoring the Mental Health Act in 2014/15. Care Quality commission.
NHS. (2013). Live It Well Strategy. Retrieved from Medway: http://www.medway.gov.uk/pdf/Live It Well strategy final2.pdf
Tope, R., & Thomas, E. (2007). Health and Social Care Policy and the Inter-professional Agenda. NHS.
White, K. (2013). Mental Health Services in Medway. Kent: Medway Mental Health Services.
