Hafal Service Users tell Health Minister of their experiences at Report launch

A reportpublished today looks at progress made so far against the aims of the MentalHealth (Wales) Measure 2010. The report was launched at an event in Cardiff byHealth Minister Mark Drakeford; the launch wasattended by service users who spoke about their experience of mental healthservices and care and treatment planning. Hafal Members had inspired theoriginal legislation and had proposed the detailed content of the new legalright to a Care and Treatment Plan which was adopted by the Government.

HealthMinister Mark Drakeford said: “Wales is the only UK country to place a legalduty on health boards and local authorities around the assessment and treatmentof mental health problems.

“It isimportant we take stock of progress to date, and I am pleased this interimreport shows there have already been significant improvements to services, andtherefore to the lives of people needing to access them.

“Patientfeedback is key if we are to succeed in providing services tailored to theindividual. Early surveys show that 94 per cent of people accessing the newlocal primary mental health services rate them positively.

“We must nowbuild on the good progress made to bring about further improvement, for exampletowards achieving our target that 90 per cent of people requiring interventionare seen within 56 days.

“I am verygrateful to those involved in implementing this important legislation, withinthe NHS and voluntary sector. Today’s report shows their efforts really aremaking a difference.”

BillWalden-Jones, Chief Executive of Hafal, said: “Hafal’s Members – people with aserious mental illness and their carers – strongly support the new mentalhealth legislation in Wales and we are delighted to see that this report showsimplementation is on track.

“The Measure,unique to Wales, provides legal rights to patients which make a real difference- rights to an holistic care and treatment plan, rights to advocacy, and rightsto get back into services when things go wrong.  The Welsh Government developedeffective legislation because it listened to patients and carers.

“Wales shouldbe proud of its mental health legislation which makes it a world leader insupporting vulnerable people on their pathway to recovery and socialintegration.”

Since theMeasure came into force in 2012, the majority (89.9%) of people who require onehave a care and treatment plan in place. The report also shows waiting timesfor assessment have improved, so much so that the target has been reduced fromthe previous target of 56 days for referral to assessment, to 28 days (October2013). To read the full report go to: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/health/publications/health/reports/interim/?lang=en

For moreinformation on care and treatment planning please download Hafal’s guide forservice users and carers: http://www.hafal.org/hafal/pdf/Care_and_Treatment_Planning_1.pdf