23 January 2001

SANE'S RESPONSE TO ‘USERS VOICES' BY THE SAINSBURY CENTRE FOR MENTAL HEALTH

The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health has today published a report, ‘Users Voices', documenting the experiences of 500 people with mental illness living in England. The report found that for the majority of people, the linchpin of community mental health services, the Care Programme Approach, was meaningless.

Commenting on report, Marjorie Wallace, Chief Executive of SANE, said:

"We are led to believe that the Care Programme Approach is already in place, that people know where to turn for help and that those who most need services have access to them. This report explodes those myths and reveals in users' own words the raw levels of unmet need. Much of what it shows echoes the stories of our thousand callers a week to SANELINE.

"The lack of involvement of service users in the Care Programme Approach indicated in this report is of great concern. The fact that so few people with severe mental illness interviewed knew who to contact in a crisis indicates a failure of the system at the most basic level.

"The continuing experience of people with mental illness who feel alone and without support after being discharged from hospital is indefensible and illustrates the difficulties users face moving from one area to another within a truncated system.

"SANE welcomes such a thorough evaluation of the direct experiences of people with mental illness. A similar evaluation of carers' voices remains to be heard."

ends