Slow progress on mental health policy criticised

Mental health campaigners have said “a lot of ground needs to be made up” if the Government’s mental health policy, A Vision for Change, is to be implemented by 2016.

Representatives of Mental Health Reform’s 21 member organisations used the sixth anniversary of the publication of the mental health strategy to criticise the slow progress in implementing the policy.

A Vision for Change was published in 2006 and marks the departure from an overly medicalised service based in institutions to a modern, multi-disciplinary, recovery-focused and community-based mental health service.