| Synopsis: |
The issue of the mental health of the population needs to be placed on the health agenda. This paper is based on a conference and workshops attended by public health physicians, psychiatrists, general practitioners and managers which aimed to do just that. It explores how, in the world of the new NHS, purchasers and providers of mental health can work to a common profile for assessing mental health need, developing the service profile to meet that need and measuring the health gain achieved by their service profile. The conference set out to combine the complex and conflicting interests and priorities of psychiatrists, public health physicians and a host of primary, secondary and tertiary care providers both inside and outside the NHS and to emerge with pointers towards an approach to mental health care that can be embraced by all involved. |