Tackling safety in some of London's mental health hospitals, as well as problems of excessive workloads and poor housing opportunities, are key to easing staff shortages that continue to be at crisis levels, according to a new report from the King's Fund.

Forum Response: Depression Alliance

Jim Thomson, director of Depression Alliance, told ePolitix.com: "The words reality check can seldom have been more appropriate. With vacancies in mental health in general running at several times the average across the sector - and with London particularly badly hit - it beggars belief that government is considering introducing legislation that could see mental health services come under massively increased strain.

"When Pippa Gough says that 'Acute mental health wards can be challenging, stressful and dangerous working environments. Nurses are increasingly vulnerable to violent and intimidating behaviour, and patients are also losing out when ward environments are unsafe.' she could be talking about institutions in the Victorian age, but she's not. This is the state of mental health provision in one of the World's great cities, in the 21st Century.

"The King's Fund - and Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health - reports cry out for urgently-needed improvements in recruiting, retaining and supporting those working in mental health environments.

"Of course, these improvements would have a positive impact on service-users and Depression Alliance believes that they would be a far better use of government's time and resources than would plotting to introduce public order measures dressed up as mental health legislation".

Forum Response: SANE

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of SANE, told ePolitix.com: ""It is disgraceful that despite mental health being one of the government's three health priorities, wards in many London hospitals remain squalid, overcrowded and rife with street drugs and aggression.

"Far from providing a safe haven for mentally ill people, wards continue to be places where patients and staff fear for their safety. SANE urges the Government to enact the recommendations in the King's Fund report without delay."