Community-oriented integrated mental health services

Abstract

Unprecedented levels of cost containment in NHS and social care organisations - together with integration as a policy priority - make this a key moment for fresh ways of thinking about how to commission and provide community-based integrated services that meet the challenge of local accountability and citizen participation. This is nowhere more important than in mental health. Primary care with its local orientation is properly at the heart of this agenda, but there is a need for new forms of leadership for collaboration in the sector. In this context, the contribution of general practitioner (GP) networks is likely to be fundamental. This paper is a brief discussion of some of the issues associated with GP networks and mental health, set in the context of a round table discussion with three sets of participants at a 2014 London Journal of Primary Care/Royal College of General Practitioners conference. The conference provided a forum for capturing a diversity of experience and knowledge and for turning this into a force for critical transformation. This paper describes a contribution to the day.